Humanity
by Moofy-Fan
Summary: Prince Myrrha received a very strange present for his eighth birthday, an anima slave by the name of Cooro.  It isn't very long before he can't help but wonder just how inhuman these 'beasts' truly are. How could something he'd been taught his entire life be wrong, though?
1. Prologue Normal Birthday Morning

Hello everybody. I have no idea what I'm doing, starting another fic. I don't have time for this! It's one of the most rushed school years so far, but this idea wont. Leave. My. Mind.

I think I first had the idea for this plot all the way back in um… 2009 ish. I can't really remember, but it was before I started writing fanfics again, and I forgot about it for the longest time. Once again though, I've remembered during a bout of really wanting to write about Husky, and this is the result. I hope it's good, I've tweaked it quite a bit from the original design.  
>Anyway, here's the summary, I hope you enjoy my terrible decision.<p>

Summary: Prince Myrrha received a very strange present for his eighth birthday, a slave +anima by the name of Cooro. After a while, he starts to wonder just how inhuman anima really are. Confusion begins to wrack the eight year old as he struggles between the lines of his duty and loyalties as crowned prince, and simply having a friend for what feels like the first time in his life.

Prologue - Normal Birthday Morning

"Urg," the silver haired boy groaned, rolling over to keep the light shining in the windows from blinding him. It was much earlier than he would have liked, but he knew that he had to get up either way. He had classes today, or something… In his only half awoken mind, he really couldn't remember.

Slowly the fog on his brain started to dissipate a bit as he tried to convince himself to get up. Something was telling him that he was forgetting something important about today, and it took him maybe five more minutes of laying there staring at his wall before he remembered.

Oh yeah, today was his birthday, wasn't it? Finally, the now eight year old child found the ability to push himself off of his bed and walk over to the dresser on the other side of the room. _That _was why he had to get up early today. It wasn't that he really cared all that much, what was the point in celebrating just surviving? Of course, being first in line to be crowned prince, it seemed that everyone else cared, so he had no choice but to play along and pretend the whole thing was fun and exciting.

Well, there was one thing that he was looking forward to that was a result of his birthday. Apparently his aunt was going to visit for the occasion. Lady Crystala didn't visit the palace much, due to a falling out of some sorts with her brother, the king, but he still allowed her to come on special circumstances. The silver haired boy couldn't help but think of her as his link to the outside world, a place that as far as he was concerned, he was never going to be allowed to go.

Once he was dressed, the eight year old started out of his room and down the long curved hallways of the palace that was his home. He tried to ignore any of the other princes as best he could. No one ever seemed to really be on good terms with each other, and he really did want to stay out of any fights today. Maybe he couldn't help but care about his birthday, if just a little bit.

Going through his mind, he tried to remember everything it was that he was set up to do today. He had a meeting with the king, and he was pretty sure someone had mentioned something about getting his portrait painted. He couldn't help but grimace at the thought of having to stay perfectly still for however long it took the artist to finish his work. Sure, the artist didn't seem like too bad of a guy, lord Hercius or something like that. He talked a lot when he was working, but the only problem with that was it felt weird to talk back. How was he suppose to paint if you were moving?

Lastly, if they didn't spring any unmentioned events on him, which they probably would, he would get to see Lady Crystala. No one had told him what they were going to do, since they most likely didn't know what his aunt was planning, but he assumed that it would be some staff training, like she usually taught him during her visits. He would not be disappointed if that was the case. Actually, he found himself looking forward to it. He'd been practicing since her last visit, nearly six months ago now.

"Ah, prince Myrrha. Lord Hercius is waiting for you in the courtyard," one of the guards said to him, and Myrrha nodded to show that he heard. Rolling his shoulder slightly in participation of the stiffness that was more than likely going to be in place after the painting was all said and done, he started towards the courtyard like he'd been instructed. He knew it at least wouldn't last past one o'clock, since that was when he had to meet with his father, although it was only eight now. That was still nearly five hours he could very well be sitting there.

Trying to put on a more neutral face than one of annoyance, he reached the edge of the courtyard and saw the white haired artist setting up his canvas and tools. Sighing, he started over. After today, his schedule would go back to normal and he wouldn't have to deal with any surprise plans of 'celebration' or sitting still for hours on end for at least another whole year.

"Good morning, lord Hercius," the silver haired child greeted, his voice polite. Hercius smiled at him as he placed a few canisters of paint on a small shelf and motioned for him to take a seat on a stool a few feet away. Myrrha did as he was told, sitting and facing the noble as he began to speak.

"Good morning prince Myrrha, and a happy birthday," he said cheerfully, and the thin child just nodded slightly as he started to get into a pose that was comfortable. The gesture was nice, but he didn't really mind if it turned out to be a 'happy' birthday or not. Just a few hours and it'd be over and everything would be back to normal anyway, so it wasn't like it even really mattered.

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><p>And there you have it. Once again, a very, very bad decision. I promise I will try to not fall behind on any of my stories any more than I already am though. If I don't have time, I'll make it… somehow. I think a part of the reason I couldn't resist the urge to post was because of the recent string of unrelated stories. I can't help but try and counteract it with my own work.<p>

Haha, anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this start so far, and as always, please review.


	2. Ch 1 The Strangest Gift

Hello everybody, so nice of you to join me again. I have to say, hurray for the positive reaction to this story so far. Makes me less regretful of adding more work to my load. Like I said before though, I am excited for where this story will head, so without any further ado, here's the first true chapter.

Chapter 1 - The Strangest Gift

Myrrha stretched his arms above his head once he was allowed to finally move from the stool. The painting had taken about three hours, so it was only eleven o'clock and he still had another two hours before having to go see his father. Lord Hercius hummed to himself as he started packing up his supplies. He'd been talking almost the entire time, but truthfully the prince could barely remember a word that had actually been said.

"I just need to finish up the details now, but I can do that back at my studio," the nobleman said, and Myrrha just nodded absently, trying to think of what he should do during this in between time he now had. Quickly, he excused himself from the artist after thanking him and started back into the palace.

When he reached his room, he went inside and proceeded to simply go over and stare out the window. He wasn't bored, mainly just content in the chance to relax and not have to spend every waking moment studying or training or some other stressful activity that left him completely beaten at the end of the day. He wasn't sure how long he spent daydreaming before the sound of his door opening brought him back into reality. Looking over, the child was slightly surprised to find that it wasn't one of his guards sent to tell him to prepare himself for the meeting with the king.

"Mother." he said as he stood up and put his whole focus on the beautiful woman. She had a small smile on her face, a distinct change from the indifferent cold stare that she usually gave the world. Myrrha smiled slightly to himself knowing that he was one of the only, if not the only person she ever showed this different side to.

"How has your birthday been?" she asked, coming farther into the room and shutting the door behind her. The silver boy just shrugged, not all that used to the alone time. She tried, but he always had so much work piled on, and the queens certainly knew how to keep each other busy.

"Good. I'm suppose to go see father in, um, at one," he said, and Lady Marian nodded.

"In ten minutes," she informed her son, who was a bit surprised at just how long he'd spent off in his own world. Before he had the chance to say anything else though, the woman started speaking again. "Lady Crystala is to visit you today, as well," she said, and Myrrha nodded. Much like himself, the king's twin was one of the few people of royalty that his mother could actually stand to be around. It wasn't that they were friends, exactly, they didn't see each other quite enough for that, but the 22nd queen trusted her with her son, which was most certainly saying something.

"Do you know when she'll be here?" he asked, still not having any idea about the set time of the blonde woman's arrival.

"She should be here by the time your talk with the king is complete," she told him, and Myrrha was actually a bit excited about that. At least he wasn't going to just sit around with nothing to do once his meeting was finished. Glancing back over to the door, his mother started up again. "You should start heading there now," she suggested, and Myrrha nodded and started off. He did get stopped by the young woman before he managed to leave completely though.

"Happy birthday, Myrrha," she said, and for once the child actually smiled rather sincerely. Even if he didn't really care about his birthday or anything it stood for, it was more just being able to see his mother acting like some semblance of a normal person, and not the ice queen she was put up to be.

"Thanks," he said, before starting off down the curved hallway once again and this time across the long walkway that led into the Sun tower of the royal palace. He didn't come here very often, none of them did, but once again this was apparently an important day. He was one year closer to being able to be officially selected as crowned prince. Only five more years left until he was thirteen, and it'd be set in stone for the exception of anything drastic.

When he reached the throne room, he bowed respectfully before the ruler until he was commanded to rise, just as he'd been taught his whole life. Looking up, it was one of the rare times the man actually looked genuinely happy, not just amused or respectfully contained. He couldn't help but wonder if it was like that for any of his other children. Even though he was chosen as first in line, the entire concept of their rankings left most of the princes with a constant suspicion and wonder.

"So, today you are eight, correct?" the king asked, and Myrrha nodded.

"Yes, your majesty," the silver boy answered, smart enough to know that despite it being his birthday, and that this was his father, he still had to act with the utmost respect. Before all of that, this was still the man who ruled the entire country and everyone who lived there. All of them had been taught that since before they could even really understand the whole concept.

Myrrha made sure to stay as polite as he could while his father went into what seemed like a half rehearsed, half real speech, although which part was which he couldn't tell. As always, there were several guards stationed all around the room, but he mostly just ignored them as usual. It was about a half an hour later when he was dismissed from the king's side and made his way back over to the center tower where he spent most of his time. He didn't stay on the royal children's floor for very long though. The child just made his way through to go down to the floor where one of the guards informed him that the Lady Crystala was waiting for him. So his mother had been right after all, he hadn't doubted her.

Once he was inside he bowed respectfully, although it wasn't quite as formal as how he'd been with his father. His aunt smiled at him and bowed back, like she normally did before other training sessions.

"Hello Myrrha, I hope you are having a pleasant birthday," Crystala said, and the silver boy nodded.

"Yes, thank you," he answered almost automatically. It actually was, if he thought about it. He'd gotten to see his mother, the painting hadn't been too bad, and his visit with the king had gone well. There was also the fact that so far none of the other princes had attempted to bother him, and he was excused from all his classes for today. He didn't really care for the day all that much, but he had to admit, it did come with its perks.

"I'm happy to hear that. I have a present for you," the regal woman told him, surprising the child slightly. He'd been expecting lessons, not any sort of present. The eight year old just nodded though, wondering slightly what kind of gift it could be.

"Thank you, lady Crystala," he said before even seeing whatever it was she'd brought for him. Even if he didn't have to say it just to be polite, he didn't doubt that whatever his aunt would give him would be either interesting or useful. She was actually practical like that, and it was something that he liked about her.

Some movement in the back of the large room caught the child's attention, and he quickly glanced behind the older woman to see someone coming forward that he hadn't noticed was in the room before now. Myrrha couldn't help but frown slightly as a bit of confusion set in. It looked to be a boy about his age, although from his clothes it was obvious that he was probably a commoner. Quickly he noticed the collar fashioned around his neck, as well as the pitch black design swirled on each of his shoulders. It didn't take anymore than that for the silver child to put together that this was obviously one of his aunts slaves.

"Myrrha, this is Cooro, he's a crow +anima," Crystala informed him, and Myrrha nodded politely, wondering slightly what this had to do with anything. He knew his aunt liked to respect her slaves though, and figured that this might just be a part of it.

"Nice to… meet you," he said hesitantly, and the anima flashed a large smile at him before glancing back at lady Crystala. It was obvious that he wanted to talk, but had probably been instructed not to.

"Myrrha, he is your gift," the blonde woman informed him, and Myrrha couldn't keep the surprised look off his face as his head shot towards his aunt.

"Huh?" he asked, temporarily breaking the act of politeness and respect that they all seemed to carry when around adults. Surely she'd just said that by accident, she must have meant that he _had _his gift, not _was _his gift. His aunt repeated herself without changing her expression at all though, and the anima, what was his name, Cooro? He looked a bit worried, although it was under a layer of apparent happiness.

"He is my gift to you. Promise to take good care of him," Crystala said, and the silver boy just nodded, slightly out of it from the surprise. This… was not what he thought would happen when going to see his aunt. Now that he looked the boy over a bit more closely, he saw that the collar he wore didn't carry his aunt's symbol, but the symbol of a palace slave. One question just kept ringing through his head though. What was he suppose to do with a slave?

"I will… thank you," he repeated, and the tall woman nodded approvingly.

"He will stay with the rest of the slaves during the night, but at day he is your responsibility. I'll let you two leave now in order to get everything situated, and yes, the king is already aware," Lady Crystala explained, and Myrrha just nodded again, a bit surprised that she'd been able to detect that last thought of his so clearly.

Saying farewell, the silver boy headed out of the room and up the stairs to the Royal Children's floor, the anima following close behind him. He kept looking around at every little thing they passed that seemed to interest him, but neither boy said anything. Myrrha still had absolutely no idea what he was suppose to do with this kid. He didn't have much experience with anima… the only one he'd really saw using its powers was the one locked in that cage when Crystala had visited two years ago. Only that one had gone mad and dangerous. This boy certainly didn't seem like either of those two things, luckily, and he highly doubted his aunt would have given him the boy if he was.

Reaching his room, Myrrha sighed under his breath before heading inside. He had absolutely no idea what to expect from this rather… unusual gift his aunt had decided would be a good idea to give him. He still couldn't believe that his father had actually agreed, and could only wonder what the woman had done in order to convince him. It was no secret that the king despised +anima of any kind.

Well, one thing he did know, what that the whole 'normal schedule' thing that he had thought he would be able to get back to was probably not going to happen any time soon.

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><p>Hurray, we are started on our path to a plot. Or at least, Cooro had been introduced, and now fun things can start to happen. It's always a bit hard for me to write the king, since he had such a small amount of show time (coming from the person who's writing a full fledged story about Keane of all people.)<p>

Well, I hope you liked this chapter, reviews are always appreciate and treasured like diamonds.


	3. Ch 2 Definitely Not Afraid

Ahhh! Sorry internet people! I died again x_x I had a laundry list of deadlines and real life activities that took up every waking moment I had, and some that I didn't. Well, I hope that this chapter is worth the wait at least a little bit. We finally get some Husky and Cooro interaction.

Oh, also, I feel so accomplished! I started a fanfic recommendation page on +anima's TV tropes. So, for any tropers out there, you can go see that, and help to add any story you think deserving and fill it up.

Chapter 2 - Definitely Not Afraid

Myrrha stared intently at the anima on the other side of his room, frowning in concentration as he tried to analyze the child. There wasn't really much to him that he hadn't noticed before. His hair was tied back in a small braid, and he had some colorful feathers in it for some reason. So far, he hadn't seemed to notice the staring, just looking around himself curiously. The silver boy couldn't help but feel tense at his every movement though, not sure what he was suppose to be doing in the slightest.

"Hi!" the anima said seemingly out of the blue, turning back towards the prince quickly and causing Myrrha to jump in surprise. It didn't really appear to affect the black haired boy any, who just continued to look at him and wait for a response. As fast as he could, the prince managed to pull himself together enough to cross his arms and replace the surprised look on his face with one of distrust.

"Hello…" he said, still at a loss for what to really do. Was he suppose to talk to him? What should he even say? Before he was able to actually think of anything, the anima started speaking again. Myrrha was actually a little bit grateful for that, since he probably would have stood there all day if he had to think of what to do next.

"So, you're a prince, huh? That's neat," he said. All Myrrha could do was nod, still apprehensive about the whole situation. The anima boy seemed to lose focus again though, and began to wonder around the room. Myrrha made sure to keep himself at a distance, although he hadn't even realized he was doing it at first. Whenever the anima seemed to get a bit too close, he would start to walk in the opposite direction, never turning his back to him.

"Your aunt's a really nice lady," Cooro started again, and Myrrha just nodded for a second time, taking a few more steps back. What kind of anima did Crystala say he was again? A crow or something, right? Well, it wasn't like something like that could hurt him very much, unless he grew talons or something… Myrrha took a few more steps back.

"Is something wrong?" the black haired boy asked, causing Myrrha to blink in confusion. Quickly, he shook his head, although it just seemed to make Cooro frown slightly. After a moment, he took a step towards the prince. Myrrha instinctively took one back. Another step forward, another back. Repeat.

A strange smile went over the anima's face, and Myrrha tried to tell himself that he was not scared of some weird little boy with animal powers. Even if he did look like he might be older than him… and those animal powers could be really dangerous…

"Boo!" Cooro yelled, seeming to lunge at the silver haired prince. Myrrha yelped and ran to the other side of the room as fast as he could. When he looked back though, Cooro was standing in the same place he'd been before. He was frowning now though, and Myrrha mentally cursed himself, trying to get his heartbeat to calm itself. He needed to stop being so jumpy. After all, it wasn't like he was…

"Why are you scared of me?" the black haired anima asked, cutting Myrrha's thoughts off. The prince started shaking his head, although it didn't seem to convince Cooro at all. It was true though, even if the way he acted seemed to contradict that statement. How was he supposed to react when someone pretended to lunge at him? Every other time it happened, it was not pretend. He had to remember though, this wasn't another prince. This was _his _anima. He wasn't allowed to attack him. Of course, when the other princes did try to attack him, he would usually just fight back. Myrrha realized that he'd only said one word since they reached his room, and started to clear his throat. He was _not _scared, after all. He was just being… apprehensive.

"I'm not-" he started, but cut himself off and shook his head. He sounded so whiny there. "I'm not _afraid_ of you!" he managed to get out. The silver boy was planning to say more, but before he was able to Cooro's smile returned full force and he started talking again.

"Really? Yay, that's good! I don't want you to be afraid of me," the black haired boy said quickly. Myrrha still had no idea what was with this kid. We're all anima this way? That vicious one he saw years ago definitely wasn't, but his aunt had said that things like that don't normally happen to anima very often. If they were all like this, he had no idea how she managed to put up with so many all the time. At the very least, it didn't seem very hard to please him. Kind of like a dog, or how he imagined a pet dog would be like. Finally, he nodded.

"Uh huh…" he mumbled. The silver boy soon became aware that Cooro was still staring at him, as if waiting for him to say something. For the first time Myrrha realized that Cooro probably was almost as unsure about all this as he was, and now that he's had his look around the room, didn't know what to do next. "So, anima…" he started, catching the child's attention.

"Call me Cooro," he interjected, and Myrrha nodded hesitantly.

"Right, so um, Cooro…" he began again, the black haired boy nodding. "You're my anima now," Might as well start off with something that concerned them both. Cooro nodded once again, not appearing too concerned with this. "So, that means you have to do as I say." At least, that was how Myrrha was pretty sure it was supposed to go. +Anima slaves, or well, any slaves really, had to do the work their masters gave them. He still wasn't really sure what 'work' he had for the boy. It wasn't like he could send the slave to his lessons in his place.

"Yep," Cooro answered, a smile still on his face. It unnerved Myrrha slightly. Who would be happy about being in slavery? Although, he really had no idea was slavery was really like in practice. His lessons really didn't make it out to be so bad, except for the whole 'no free will or citizenship' thing. For some work, the slaves got taken care of and a place to live for free. It was basically the same as having a job to pay for those things, right? And being a royal slave was probably a lot better than what some other jobs could be. Maybe that was why Cooro didn't seem to mind.

"Right. So, I don't actually have anything for you to do right now…" Myrrha said. Cooro just nodded and started over towards the silver prince's desk. He mentally cursed himself again when he instinctively took another step back as the anima passed him. He was not afraid of him. Luckily, Cooro didn't say anything about it, just sitting down at his desk chair and turning around to face him again. If he wasn't going to bring it up, Myrrha sure as anything wasn't going to.

After a few seconds, the prince sat down on his bed, still making sure as to not turn his back to the anima. He just… didn't want him trying to run off or anything. Even though he wasn't scared, that didn't mean that his father hated anima for no reason. He had every right to be careful, even if he severely doubted that Lady Crystala would put him in any kind of danger on purpose. The king had said before that she trusted these beasts too much. When he looked at Cooro though, the term 'beast' really didn't seem to describe him.

The silver boy reminded himself that he wasn't really looking at the anima part of him though. That part was hidden away by whatever kind of magic they used. Truthfully, he didn't like describing it that way. It made it seem like no one ever tried to figure out exactly how it worked. Someone had to, but they must not have been able to find whatever it was. There had to be something after all, but the few times his teachers chose to speak about anima, they hadn't bothered to explain it beyond 'magic.' He didn't get why they didn't just ask the anima. He used to think it was because they wouldn't tell, or were like the one in the cage, but it didn't seem like that would be a problem with Cooro.

"Hey…" the silver prince started, seeming to bring Cooro out of whatever daydream he'd been in. "can I um… see your anima?" he asked. Myrrha wasn't too sure why he asked, he could have just told the anima to. He would have to listen, after all. Cooro had already nodded anyway, and Myrrha's eyes widened as pitch black wings started to sprawl out from his back.

The young prince had heard about anima, and seen the one, as well as some pictures, but it really wasn't anything like this. He looked like one of those angels that were so popular in Asteria. Black feathers covered the length of both his arms as well, but that was it. There weren't any talons or anything else that could be used to hurt him (Myrrha had wondered vaguely if he might have a beak, and was kind of glad that he didn't. It would have just looked silly).

"Woah…" he said quietly, flinching a bit afterwards. So it was kind of impressive. Okay, it was really impressive, but that didn't mean he had to let him know that. The black haired anima was smiling brightly, but he didn't say anything yet. "So um," Myrrha started again, "you can fly?" he asked, and Cooro nodded feverishly.

"Of course! Why would I have wings if I couldn't fly?" he asked, and the young prince shrugged slightly.

"I don't know, because it looks cool?" he answered weakly. Okay, so that had been a dumb question looking back on it, but there were some birds that couldn't fly. Or at least, he heard of birds that couldn't fly. He'd never been far enough away, or outside of the palace, to see them. He was about to tell the crow anima this when he started talking again. Myrrha wasn't used to someone cutting him off so much. He didn't talk to the other princes enough, and everyone else was much to 'polite' to do such a thing.

"You really think my wings look cool?" he asked, and Myrrha shrugged slightly.

"Um, yeah? I've never actually _seen_ an anima before," he answered, leaving out the caged anima beast. It wasn't really the same thing, and he wasn't too sure how Cooro would react to something like that. It had really freaked him out when he first saw it, and he was very glad that it didn't seem like Cooro was anything like that.

The black haired boy just smiled at this. He sure did smile a lot. Unsure what to do next, Myrrha just stared down at the floor, kicking his legs back and forth. Since he wouldn't have a lot of work for Cooro to do, would it be like… having a pet? It was a bit weird to think of something that looked so human as a pet, but then again he wasn't really human. The wings and feathers proved that.

So, he had a pet now. He couldn't say that he'd always wanted one, because truthfully, he hadn't really cared. It would be interesting though, and if he were to get a pet, an anima did seem like a nice choice. It was smarter than any other animal he could have gotten.

He was smart enough at least to talk to, and to understand what would happen if he ever hurt his new owner. Not that he was afraid that would ever happen, definitely not.

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><p>And finished. Once again, sorry about the wait. This chapter was kind of hard to write on top of everything else. I knew what I wanted to happen, but wasn't sure on how to word it exactly. I hope it came out okay though. Please review and tell me what you think.<p> 


	4. Ch 3 Anxiety and Adjusting Emotions

Hello everyone. Look, the chapter isn't super late again, hurray. Even though I should be studying for my midterms instead of writing.

Oh also, it's time for some shameless self-promotion. Yay. I started (another) new +anima fic, and I'm really excited about it. The initial idea was given to me by Kay Hau, and she helped with a lot of the details. I can already tell it's going to be an epic sized drama along the lines of Dreams Of Yesterday. So yeah, if anyone's interested, you can totally um, go read that when you're done this. If not, sorry about the commercial, we shall now continue with your regularly scheduled programs.

Chapter 3 - Anxiety and Adjusting Emotions

The rest of the day was spent pretty much exactly how the first hour with the +anima had been. Myrrha slowly, very slowly, became a bit more at ease with having him in the room, but he still pulled back on reflex whenever he moved a bit too fast or came a bit too close. Once he finally left to sleep where the other slave quarters were, the silver haired boy couldn't help but give a small sigh of relief. He kept trying to talk to him all day, and he had no idea what he was supposed to say. It wasn't long at all after he left that Myrrha managed to fall asleep. Sure, he hadn't gone through any of his tough classes today, but he was still exhausted.

The next morning Myrrha groaned and pushed himself out of bed. In his half asleep stupor, he simply went through his normal routine without a second thought that anything might be different from how it normally was. What had happened the day before was momentarily forgotten, being so completely away from what he was used to. It wasn't until he left his room did all that abnormality come crashing back into him. Literally.

"Ow… what the? You!" he yelled, now sitting on the floor. The crow anima was laughing nervously as he scratched the back of his head. He had been knocked to the ground as well, sitting about half a foot away.

"Heh, hi. I woke up and didn't know what to do, so I came to see if you were awake yet," Cooro told him. Hesitantly the silver boy nodded before pushing himself off of the ground and standing back up. Cooro quickly followed his example and jumped to his feet as well. Myrrha just stared at him for a moment, not really sure what he was supposed to do now either. He had to go to class, and he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to have his slave tagging along.

"Right well, I need to go to my classes. You can do… whatever until I come back," he said, starting down the hallway. He just hoped that the black haired boy didn't get into any trouble while he was alone. Before Myrrha was able to get very far though, Cooro started talking again.

"When will you be back?" he asked. He didn't sound like he was particularly lost or helpless, like a slave without his master might normally. Myrrha had no doubt that he would be able to amuse himself somehow while he was gone. No, he just sounded curious, which Myrrha guessed would be a good word to describe how the crow boy was on a whole.

"About four hours. You can stay in my room, or um, there's a garden that way if you get bored. The other princes should be in class too, so no one should be there to bother you. Just make sure to stay out of the way of any queens," Myrrha explained. Thankfully, the +anima nodded in understanding, and the prince continued his way to class. Maybe he would be able to figure out what to do with him once his classes were finished.

It was strange. He was pretty smart, or at least, he was always thought to be. If he wasn't, then he wouldn't have been named first in line for the position of crown prince when there were plenty of other, older princes who would give anything to be in his place. So why was what to do with a single anima slave stumping him so badly? He couldn't help but think that this might be some sort of test Lady Crystala was giving him for some reason. She was strange like that, and he didn't doubt it was something she would do.

Of course, he could be completely wrong, and she'd just thought the +anima would make a nice gift. He was probably looking too deep into all of this. He just needed to ignore it and focus on his studies for the next couple of hours, and then try and see what he should do about Cooro.

Despite how much he wanted to forget about the anima, Myrrha found himself distracted throughout all of his lessons. Thankfully, his teachers didn't seem to take much notice, too wrapped up in what they were saying to really check and see if their only student was actually paying attention.

The four hours going between his separate classes felt more like eight by the time they were finally over and he found himself rushing back to his room. Once there, he hesitated before opening the door. What if he wasn't in there? Would be get in trouble for not keeping watch on him? Of course, he'd told Cooro that he could go to the garden if he got bored. Plus, they couldn't expect him to watch the boy all the time. They knew he had classes when they allowed him to get the slave, so they would understand if he was wandering around. He hadn't given him permission to wander around though, just go to the garden. Although his exact words were that he could go do 'whatever.'

Shaking his head, he tried to tell himself he was being irrational again. Cooro was probably right inside the room, and there was absolutely no reason to be standing outside in the hallway like an idiot. Grabbing the handle, he opened the door and went inside.

He tried not to notice the panic that swept through his body at the sight of the empty room. "C-cooro?" he called out, hoping that the +anima was just being strange and hiding behind the bed or something. He wouldn't put it past him. When no answer came however, it got harder for the silver haired boy to stay calm.

It was okay. He was probably just in the garden, like he suggested. Most of the prince's classes were over by now though. Since he was first in line, he usually ended up with the most hours spent with the teachers. What if Keane or one of the others found him? Did they even know he'd gotten an anima yet? Of course, even if they knew Cooro was his, that didn't mean they wouldn't try to mess with him. Hell, that might make them want to do it even more.

Spinning on his heels, Myrrha attempted to run to the garden and look for the missing boy. Instead of doing that, he felt himself slam into something for the second time that day and end up sprawled on his bedroom floor.

"Ow…" he groaned, rubbing his head before looking up to see what exactly he had run into. It almost felt like de-ja-vu when he caught sight of the black haired slave sitting on the floor just a few feet away from him, looking rather dazed. He seemed to come out of it quicker than Myrrha however, his expression changing into a sheepish smile.

"Haha, we should probably stop doing that," he oh so helpfully offered. The silver boy quickly frowned, the worry that he'd had before quickly dissolving into anger now that it was clear Cooro was fine. He didn't even know why he'd gotten so worked up to begin with anymore. What did he care if the other princes messed with him anyway? He was an anima, he could just fly away or something.

"Where the hell were you?" Myrrha asked, quickly getting to his feet. His anger only seemed to confuse the +anima though, who decided to stay seated on the floor for some reason or another.

"You said I could go to the garden if I got bored. I made sure to come back four hours later, when you said you'd be done with classes," Cooro said. The silver prince quickly broke eye contact, not wanting to admit that he was right. He had said he could do that, and the boy couldn't have come in even a minute after he did, or else he wouldn't have run into him like he had. Myrrha crossed his arms and glared at his bed off to the side, not used to admitting he was wrong, especially to something that wasn't even technically human.

"Yeah, well, you should come back a little earlier next time, so that I don't get worried something's happened to you," he said, quickly hoping that Cooro didn't pick up on the fact that he'd just admitted he was worried. Of course he would be though, the +anima was his responsibility, and if anything happened to him, he would have to explain it to Crystala. He could just imagine what that conversation would be like, especially since she'd told him specifically to take good care of him. The black haired boy just smiled and nodded though, not appearing to have noticed.

"Will do," he said happily. Myrrha just rolled his eyes before sitting down on his bed in a heap. Now that he had Cooro here, he still didn't know what to do with him. The crow anima just frowned slightly and looked up at the prince. He was still on the floor, but Myrrha guessed he didn't care if what he sat on was hard or not.

"Are you okay?" Cooro asked after a few moments, startling the silver prince slightly. Blinking a few times, he quickly reigned in the surprise and nodded.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine," Myrrha answered, not sure why he would even care if he wasn't. That was just another thing he guessed he didn't understand about this whole slave thing yet. Did slaves care about their masters? He knew that Crystala's slaves all respected her, or at least that was what he'd heard. That wasn't the same thing as care though. He had to 'respect' all of the other queens after all, but he sure as anything didn't care if one of them was upset over something.

Neither boy said anything for a few moments, and although Myrrha would never admit it, he was starting to get rather bored. Usually he would just start to read or study whenever he was alone, but he wasn't alone anymore. Cooro kept looking around the room idly before glancing back over to him. He didn't look like he was waiting for orders like the guards did sometimes. Nope, he just looked bored. Like Myrrha was.

"So…" the silver boy started awkwardly, not really sure what he was even planning on saying. That one word quickly caught the attention of the crow boy however, so he guessed he couldn't really stop there. "what do you, um, like to do? For fun or something, I guess," he stumbled out. Faster than he thought possible, Cooro was on his feet, smiling full force. Once again, the silver boy felt himself recoiling back from the other, although this time he felt it was just a little bit justified. Even if he wasn't an anima or slave or any of that, Myrrha still would have jumped back in surprise.

"Oh! We could play a game, or um, you could show me around the palace! It's big, like, really big! Or we could, um… uh, I don't know. What do _you _like to do?" Cooro asked. Myrrha thought for a moment, staring down at the floor as he answered.

"Read?" he hadn't meant for it to be a question, although it kind of was. It wasn't like they could read together. Plus, Cooro didn't seem like the kind of person who liked to sit still for very long. Before the black haired boy was able to voice his objection, Myrrha started speaking again. "So, what kind of games do you like?" he asked.

The black haired boy quickly started to rattle off a list of his favorite games, half of which the prince had never even heard of before. Myrrha would just nod occasionally as Cooro explained the rules to each one.

So, he still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing with a slave. In all actuality, he was pretty sure he was doing whatever it was wrong. There was a strange quality to the hyperactive boy though, and he didn't really act much like Myrrha expected a slave, or a +anima for that matter, to.

Besides, he didn't really have much for a slave to do after all, and one day of letting him play around and teach him some ridiculous game where they couldn't touch the floor because, apparently, it was 'lava' wouldn't hurt.

* * *

><p>The floor is lava! I love that game! Why is it that every kid in the world instinctively knows it to? Well, every one except Husky, apparently. Anyway, I had fun writing this chapter. I hope you all liked it, hopefully things will start to get a bit more interesting in the next few chapters.<p>

Well, as always, please review and let me know what you think.


	5. Ch 4 Warming Up

Hello everybody. Sorry about the chapter being a bit late. If you've been on my account (or probably read the author's notes of some of my other stories) you've seen that my old, poor laptop died. I've finally managed to get one from a friend of my dad's that he's letting me borrow until I go off to college in the fall. So I'm able to update stories again. Still trying to get my files off the old computer, but hopefully that should happen soon.  
>Anyway, here's the next chapter for you all, and thanks again for being patient and waiting for me as I tried to sort through all of that.<p>

Chapter 4 – Warming Up

Prince Myrrha quickly figured out just how 'good' Cooro could be at the strange game he'd made up. At first, the silver haired boy didn't see anything unfair or suspicious about the game at all. Since really, why would there be? Then, Cooro started to fall off of the overturned chair he was perched on, and Myrrha was reminded of the fact that his slave wasn't actually human.

"H-hey! There's no way that's fair!" he yelled, causing himself to end up falling to the floor when he turned around quickly. Staring up from the ground, the black haired boy was currently hovering in the center of the room, a huge smile plastered on his face. Cooro just started giggling slightly as he made his way over to where the prince now sat, never touching the floor once.

"You never said I couldn't use my wings," he responded happily, the wind created from the flapping making the prince's hair blow around slightly. Myrrha had the feeling that he knew something like this was going to end up happening from the moment he suggested they played this game. Frowning, he crossed his arms and glared up at the other child. He didn't even really care about this stupid game anyway; he just wasn't used to losing.

"Well, I'm saying you can't now!" he demanded. For a reason completely lost to him, the winged boy just smiled brighter. Myrrha just didn't really get this kid, he was always so happy. Why would someone be glad that their one advantage was just taken away?

"So that means you want to play again?" he asked. The silver prince stared at him for a second. Oh, he guessed he did just kind of say that, didn't he? Sighing slightly, he shrugged his shoulders. He guessed if Cooro wasn't using his wings, there was nothing wrong with it. He didn't really have much else to do for the rest of the day, after all. He doubted they would end up playing for that long anyway.

"Sure, why not," he said at last, pushing himself off of the floor. "But no wings this time," he repeated. Cooro nodded, landing on the ground and pulling the feathered appendages back in. The silver prince couldn't help but stare at him slightly as he did. He decided that +anima were kind of amazing like that. It probably wouldn't be the best idea to admit that to anyone of course, seeing as they were usually so hated.

Really though, if all +anima were like Cooro, he didn't really get why that was so. Sure, he could understand the whole not being human thing; that made sense. He obviously wasn't with the wings and feathers and all the other animal powers they could have. The real thing was that besides being kind of annoying there wasn't actually any reason to _hate_ him.

Of course, if he thought about it, he kind of doubted that all +anima were like Cooro. Aunt Crystala probably made sure to give him one that wasn't anywhere near as dangerous as most normal +anima were. It was like giving someone a domesticated cat as a pet instead of a tiger.

Shaking his head, he managed to bring himself out of his thoughts in time to start playing the strange little game with Cooro again.

The silver prince had not expected that they would play for as long as they did, but soon it was time for Cooro to head back to the slaves courter's for the night. Even without using his wings, the black haired boy managed to beat him in the game nine out of every ten time. It actually started to irritate Myrrha slightly. He wasn't used to losing things, but then again, it wasn't like anything about this game would ever be useful to him. Well, there was the whole balance thing, but Cooro was part bird. He probably had to be extra careful if he ever had to land on something wobbly like a tree branch.

The next day was Sunday, the only day of the week where he actually didn't have any classes. Some of the other princes had more free time, especially the ones that were very far down the line of succession, but being crown prince he had to learn something new almost everyday.

It was still early when Cooro came into his room, a large smile plastered on his face as per usual. It was the third day he'd had the +anima boy now, and Myrrha guessed that he was starting to be slightly more at ease with him around. It was still very strange and he wasn't really sure what how he was supposed to actually deal with him, but he didn't flinch at all anymore. At least, not unless it was something that would have startled most people.

"Hiya. Do you have classes again today?" the black haired boy asked, and Myrrha shook his head.

"No, the princes have off on Sundays. I guess you'll learn the schedule soon enough, it doesn't really change all that much," the younger boy explained. I was true, life in the palace usually stuck to a pretty predictable schedule. That was probably a part of the reason why he was knocked so off guard when Cooro was randomly thrust into his life.

The +anima was nodding his head now, clearly pleased with the fact that he wouldn't have to be left alone again like yesterday.

"Oh yay, do you have anything else planned for today? There's probably a lot of fun stuff to do in a place as big as this," Cooro said. Myrrha shrugged, trying to think about what he did actually do for fun. The result was pretty much the same as the night before, and the silver prince was becoming increasingly self-conscious the more he thought and the less he could place. He just always focused on his studies, and when he wasn't he either rested or read or something like that. Any other time he'd probably gotten roped into another fight with some of the other princes. It was all a routine.

"Um, not really. I usually just relax whenever I get time off. I guess I could show you around a bit of the palace though, just so you can get a layout and general idea of where you can and can't go, or something," Myrrha answered after a while. Cooro quickly agreed to that idea. Leaving the room, Myrrha wasn't actually too sure where to bring the black haired boy first. The princes didn't really leave their floor for any reasons except classes, so he didn't see any reason Cooro would need to either.

Deciding it would be best to just get that out of the way, the two did a quick walk around the entirety of the circular hallway that made up the prince's floor. Husky didn't really say much, and he knew that Cooro had already seen most of it when he'd come to his room the past couple of days, but the boy still seemed to be interested at any rate. Or maybe he was just playing along so that Myrrha didn't end up floundering too much, he wasn't sure.

The two were outside of the courtyard when a few of the other prince's spotted them.

"Hey Husky!" one of them called, causing the silver haired boy to flinch. Well, he knew that this was going to end up happening sooner or later. It probably would be better to just get it out of the way now so that he wouldn't have to keep on worrying about it.

"Husky?" Cooro echoed, confusion clear in both his voice and on his face. The eight year old boy just sighed, starting to turn towards the other prince's that were walking over to them.

"Don't talk, okay," he whispered, praying that Cooro would listen to him. He hoped that he would be able to get through this without getting into a real fight, at least just this one time. It would probably be best if he explained how things worked between the princes to Cooro before something like that happened, so that he wouldn't freak out or something. The black haired boy just nodded and watched as the three other princes reached them.

"We heard you got a pet, huh? This it?" the boy on the left asked. He was older than Myrrha. Actually, all of them were, and had brown hair. The silver prince nodded, but before he was able to say anything the boy in the center started talking.

"So this is a +anima. He doesn't look very threatening," the redheaded boy said. He was the oldest out of all the princes, and one would have to be blind to not know about the constant tension between him and Myrrha. The silver prince really didn't care. If their father wanted to go out of order and name him as first in line for crown prince instead of the older boy for some reason, then it wasn't his fault.

"Why would you care what he looks like Keane? He's a crow anyway, not really the most vicious animal in the world," Myrrha retorted. The other three didn't pay him much attention though, most of their attention on the black haired boy. Myrrha guessed he didn't really blame them, even if it was making _him_ uncomfortable with how much they were staring at Cooro, so how knows how he must feel. They didn't ever meet knew people though, let alone children their own ages. The closest they ever got to that would be when ever a queen ended up giving birth.

"So, did you name it?" the last boy asked after a few seconds. The silver boy was kind of surprised that they hadn't immediately started any kind of fight, but the intrigue of something so foreign to all of them was probably worth having to put up with being tolerant to 'Husky' for a little while.

Cooro was clearly caught off guard by the question, a look of confusion passing over his face. Once again, Myrrha wasn't able to answer fast enough before someone else started talking. This time however, it was the crow +anima who'd cut him off.

"My name's Cooro. I had it before meeting Myrrha," he said, the befuddlement he felt rather clear on his voice. The other princes seemed surprised at first that he had actually spoken. Myrrha hoped that it wasn't because they didn't think he could or something as idiotic as that. As much as they annoyed the living daylights out of him, he liked to think that at the very least they were smarter than that.

"What, did you think someone could be able to live that long and not have a name? Of course he already had one," Myrrha said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Before anyone had a chance to respond, he turned away from the other three princes and started back down the hallway. They didn't seem like they actually wanted to fight today, but he wasn't sure how long he could chance standing around before one of them decided to change their mind.

"Come on Cooro!" he called, and the black haired boy flashed a smile at the boys before turning to follow the silver prince. Myrrha showed the +anima around a bit more, mostly just explaining where the few staircases led to, and that he probably wouldn't have many opportunities to be exploring most of the palace anyway.

It wasn't long before the two were back inside Myrrha's room, and they hadn't really managed to pass much time at all.

"So, what did those other boys mean by Husky?" Cooro asked after a moment, startling Myrrha slightly. He'd almost forgotten about that. Well, like he'd thought earlier, it was probably a good idea to explain how things in the palace worked so that the +anima wouldn't be too confused.

"That's just what they call me, because of my voice," he said nonchalantly. Cooro nodded, seeming to think over the name for a moment.

"Oh, so it's a nickname. Neat, I like it," he said. Myrrha raised an eyebrow slightly at that comment. Well, he hadn't really explained the whole story behind the name, so he guessed that there wasn't any reason why Cooro wouldn't say something like that. Since really, he didn't think it was a bad name either, although he could really care less about what people called him either way.

"Well, they're making fun of my voice with it, but that doesn't matter," he said. It caused Cooro to frown though.

"Why would they do that? You have a nice voice," he said earnestly. Husky just shrugged, quickly brushing off the compliment.

"That's how it works in the palace. The princes are all rivals for future power. It's the same with the queens too, but none of this is really anything you need to worry about. The princes just fight a lot, so I guess you should probably get used to that too," Myrrha said, trying to make it all as simple as possible. Cooro nodded in understanding, although it seemed like he didn't really like that fact all too much.

"Don't worry about it," the silver boy repeated. He didn't want Cooro to be concerned about something he was so used to. It would probably be a good idea to not tell the black haired boy just yet that he was the focus for most of the bullying because of his high status.

Myrrha didn't realize just how fast he was turning from being scared of the +anima to wanting to protect him for who knows what reason. He was completely foreign to this lifestyle after all, and Crystala had said that he was supposed to take care of him.

* * *

><p>And done! Once again, super sorry for how long this took to get out. Hopefully now I should be able to stay on a slightly better schedule and not fall behind again. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, even if not much really happened.<p>

As always, thanks for reading, and please review.


	6. Ch 5 Conflicting Confusion

Hello everyone. Hey look, this chapter didn't take three months to do! I'm getting better, kind of. Haha, anyway, yes, here's a new chapter. Oh, and you know, I actually do have a plot in mind for this story, even if now it just seems like adorableness with Cooro and Husky. Of course, a lot of it is just that too, since who does like cute little kids being cute?

Chapter 5 - Conflicting Confusion

Over the next week it seemed that Cooro was starting to get used to life in the palace, and even Myrrha was getting a hang of the new addition to his schedule. Now, he would wake up and get dressed, find Cooro waiting for him outside of his door, then leave the +anima to his own accord while he went to classes. When he came back, Cooro'd be waiting inside of his room, and would usually end up jabbering on about something or another until it was time for him to head back to the slave's quarter for the night. He'd go to sleep, and repeat the next day.

The only day that was different was Sundays, but even that was similar to how his life had been before. Of course, before he would either stay in his room, or find something else to do alone, if the other princes let him that was. Now there was this new force entirely in his life that wanted to go out and do things, and that was something Myrrha was still having a bit of trouble getting used to.

He ignored the fact that he hadn't given Cooro a single 'order' since he'd became his slave. It didn't really seem that important, and they already had servants doing most of their work for them. Anything he had left wasn't worth it to give to the black haired boy, he could just do it himself.

"So, is there anything you want to do today? Since you don't have any classes?" Cooro asked, and the silver boy shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. What do you do everyday when I'm in class?" he asked. Myrrha suddenly realized when those words left his mouth that he had no idea what it was that his slave had been doing every day for the past week. After the first day, he was always back in his room before the younger boy got there, so he hadn't put much thought to it.

"Oh, I hang out in the courtyard sometimes, it's really pretty there. I talk to the other slaves, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk to the princes in they don't come to me first," he explained. Myrrha nodded, everything he said sounding normal for the most part.

"Yeah, I wouldn't start talking to the other princes if they don't first. They're all jerks anyway, so I don't see why you would even want to," the silver boy responded, causing Cooro to laugh slightly. He didn't really see why, but decided it would probably be best just to not question it.

One of the things that Cooro had said though managed to catch the prince's curiosity. It might not help them figure out what to do in order to pass the day, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to ask about. He needed to know about all sides of the country if he was going to rule it one day, after all.

"What are the other slaves like? I knew we had some, but I've never actually seen any of the +anima kind. I don't think they're allowed on the harem floors," he asked. Before the black haired boy answered, a thought struck Myrrha. Was it safe for Cooro to be staying with the other slaves? He didn't really know much about +anima, but he guessed that the ones used as slaves were probably mostly safe, especially ones used in the palace. There must be at least a small element of danger though, since there wouldn't really be any need to enslave them if there wasn't, and there wouldn't be any reason to band them from the harem floors.

The way that Cooro smiled before he started talking put the prince's mind at ease though. The bird boy might be a little oblivious of the world around him, but surely even he wouldn't be all smiles about something that made him feel threatened in any way.

"They're really nice. They think it's neat that I'm the crown prince's slave," he explained, and Myrrha nodded. That was good. If they thought it was something cool about him, then they probably wouldn't hold any sorts of grudges against him about his work being easier or something. He didn't know if things like that happened, but he was just placing the kind of mentality that most people in the harem had that resulted in that kind of spite and jealously. Well, at least in the queens, it did.

"Hey," Cooro started, knocking Myrrha out of his thoughts and causing him to focus on the boy once again, "do you want to meet them?" he asked. The silver prince just stared at him for a moment, letting those words sink into his head.

"What?" he asked, not really understanding what he meant.

"Do you want to go meet the other slaves? Since you don't have anything else you want to do today," The black haired boy explained. Myrrha tried to hide the slight fear that immediately started to build inside of him. If Cooro said that they were nice and wasn't scared to be sleeping in the same rooms as them every night, then there was no reason for him to be. But…

"I-I don't know if I'm allowed to go to that part of the palace. Plus I've never really met any other +anima beside you, so I don't know…" he mumbled. Actually, he was pretty sure that he was most definitely positively not allowed into that part of the palace, but for some reason that made him kind of want to go. Cooro started to frown slightly, obviously disappointed in his answer.

"But that's just all the more reason to meet them, if you've only ever met me. I guess if you're not allowed though, we can just find something else to do," he said. Myrrha frowned and started thinking. He really, really wasn't allowed in that part of the palace, so Cooro did have a point that they should just find something else to do.

Of course, he was also right about him never meeting any other anima as well. The only things he knew about them was what he learned from books and that one time he saw the one in the cage. So far though, Cooro had absolutely obliterated any sort of idea he had about how +anima acted, and it was making the young boy curious. He knew they weren't really humans, but if Cooro didn't have his wings there was nothing else that made him different from any of the _princes _he'd met. Well, besides the fact that he was just so hyper and everything, but Myrrha was sure that there were other kids who acted like that, who weren't +anima.

"Um," he started, not entirely sure if this was a smart move at all, "I guess it wouldn't be that bad… we'd have to be quick though," he mumbled. The smile on Cooro's face was immediate, as was the way that he sprung up from where he'd been seated on the floor. Before Myrrha was able to blink the black haired boy had a hand on his arm and was dragging him towards the door, his mouth going a mile a minute.

"Yay! It'll be really fun, I promise. The other slaves are really nice, I'm sure you'll like them. You said that you never really leave this floor except for class anyway, so it must get pretty boring being stuck in the same place all the time. We'll get you back before anyone finds out though, so don't worry," he rambled, and Myrrha just nodded, letting him lead the way.

It wasn't long at all before they'd gone down multiple staircases. The silver prince couldn't help but get nervous whenever they ended up passing one of the guards, but surprisingly no one had bothered to stop them yet. Maybe they just didn't feel like chasing after the two with the pace Cooro had them going at.

When the crow +anima finally started to slow down, Myrrha had absolutely no idea where they were. It definitely wasn't as nice as the part of the palace he was normally used to, and he was pretty sure that they had actually gone into a different tower. There was no doubt that he would need Cooro's help getting back to his room.

"We're here!" the slightly older boy announced happily, finally coming to a full stop in front of one door in particular. The silver prince started looking around, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. The door was made of wood, and had several locks on it, although none of them seemed to actually be locked at the moment. The rest of the hallway was made of stone, and was curved just like the hallway of every other main floor in the palace.

"So, um, the +anima are… in there?" he asked, standing a few paces behind the other boy. Cooro nodded, starting towards the door as he spoke.

"Yeah, well, any of the ones that aren't out working. Come to think of it, there probably wont be too many here at this time of day, but that's okay. You're not really the most social person in the world, so you'd probably like this better," he said, and hesitantly Myrrha nodded. He didn't really expect Cooro to be the kind of person to pick up on things like that, but apparently he had.

The black haired boy opened the door, and Myrrha quickened his pace slightly so that he was standing right behind him. It wasn't that he was scared, he just had no idea what kind of +anima they even had, so he was just being rightfully cautious. Like when he first got Cooro.

"Hey, is anyone in here?" the black haired boy called out, but Myrrha had already noticed someone standing off to the side of the large room. There wasn't really anything in the room, besides several mats lined all up along the walls, which the prince guessed was their beds.

The person that Myrrha had noticed started towards them, a look on confusion on her face. She was much taller than either of the two boys, with dark brown hair and tanned skin. The young prince took a few steps so that he was practically hiding behind Cooro.

He _was not _scared, he just couldn't tell what kind of +anima the young woman was. He didn't know how cautious he would have to be yet. The black haired boy quickly noticed her, and started over.

Myrrha tried to pretend that he didn't yelp and run to hide behind his new friend once again.

"Hi Lamis! Is anyone else here?" the crow +anima asked, the tall teen looking between each of them before answering.

"No, everyone else is out working. I have to go in a few minutes as well," she said. Taking one more look at the slender boy trying to pretend that he wasn't hiding, she started again. "Just who is it that you've brought here? That's not…" she quickly trailed off, although everyone there could understand exactly who it was she'd been implying, and Cooro started nodding happily.

"Yep, this is Prince Myrrha. Myrrha, this is Lamis, she's a crane +anima," he introduced the two, pushing the younger boy out from behind his back.

"Hey!" he yelped, trying to stay where he felt it was safer behind Cooro at first, but quickly stopped when he realized just how childish he was being, and the fact that Cooro had already managed to get push him to the front anyway. Turning around, he saw the +anima teen staring at him in shock for a moment before quickly getting to her knees, bowing her head respectfully. It was just then that Myrrha realized how surprising it had to be for some random slave to have the Crown Prince come where she lived for no reason completely unannounced.

"It is an honor to meet you, my prince. What business do you have in the slave's quarters?" she asked. Myrrha shrugged. It wasn't that he wasn't used to the formalities, he was, but he really didn't have any business being here. He wasn't even allowed, but he really doubted that saying that would ease the slave's mind any. It would probably just freak her out even more, since she might get in trouble if someone found out he had snuck off, and she didn't immediately report it or something like that.

"I just wanted to meet a few of the palace slaves. I should get to know all kinds of people that live in this country if I'm going to some day rule them," he said, and Lamis nodded.

"You don't have to stay down like that, you know. Myrrha's nice," Cooro said. Reluctantly the woman looked up, clearly seeking permission from the prince himself. Myrrha didn't blame here, since Cooro didn't really seem like one to take hierarchy very seriously. The silver prince nodded, since there really was no reason to keep her bowing like that.

"It's fine. This isn't any sort of formal meeting," he said, very subtly hinting at the fact that he shouldn't be here. The +anima teen didn't catch it, not that he expected her to, and nodded once again before standing up slowly.

"So…" Myrrha started, not entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing now. "What kind of work do you do for the palace?" he asked, figuring that was a safe subject. Really, he wasn't sure what kind of work that a +anima could do that a normal person couldn't. He could probably think of some if he really tried, but it would be easier to just let the girl explain.

"I help to clean and maintain the palace roof, my prince," she said, and Myrrha nodded. It would be a lot easier and not to mention safer for someone with wings to get up there and do those kinds of things.

"Um, you said that you had to go work soon, we're not holding you up any, are we?" the silver prince asked, and Lamis immediately started shaking her head.

"Of course not. If the Crown Prince requires my attention or assistance, then any other work can understandably wait," she answered. Myrrha nodded once again, but gulped slightly on the inside. If she was late for when she was supposed to get up there, she would end up telling someone that he was here. If he ordered her not to, then she would probably just get in trouble, and he didn't want that to happen because of him.

"Thank you, but we'd best be going anyway," he said. Cooro frowned slightly next to him, but nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Myrrha's not really supposed to be here, so we need to get back before he gets caught," the black haired boy explained. The prince almost didn't noticed the look of shock and slight horror that passed over the +anima teen's face, he whipped around to face Cooro so quickly.

"Cooro! You weren't supposed to _tell _her!" he yelled, running a hand down his face at the befuddled look the black haired boy sent him.

"I wasn't?" he asked. Slowly Myrrha shook his head. "Oh, oops," Cooro said, and the prince just rolled his eyes before sighing and turning back to the fearful +anima. She was no doubt trying to figure out what she would say to explain herself if anyone found out about this.

"Don't worry about it. If anything does happen, we'll make sure to leave your name out of it," he said, easily noticing the relived look that passed over Lamis' face. "Um, it was nice to meet you," he continued, and the teen girl nodded, bowing once again.

"It was an honor to meet you as well, my prince," she said. Looking her over closely, the boy frowned. She didn't seem dangerous at all. If he didn't know she was a +anima, he wouldn't have had any idea. She just seemed like a normal human girl…

"Bye Lamis! I'll see ya later," Cooro said happily, breaking Myrrha out of his thoughts once again. The teen smiled at the energetic boy, and the silver prince started towards the door.

"Come on Cooro, I have _no _idea how to get back to the prince's floor from here," he called, and the crow +anima nodded one last time at Lamis before running over to Myrrha's side.

"Oh, it's just this way," he said, once again grabbing the prince's arm and dragging him in the correct direction. Myrrha didn't see any need for Cooro to physically pull him along, but didn't protest, his mind quickly turning to different matters instead.

+Anima… weren't like anything he imagined them to be. At first he thought that Cooro must just be a fluke, and that most of them were like that caged beast he had seen all those years ago. It almost seemed like he'd gotten it backwards now, but that just didn't seem right. If they were normal people, then why would his dad hate them, and why would they need to be slaves in the first place?

It didn't make any sense, and listening to Cooro ramble on about the other slaves as he pulled him excited down the hallway was just confusing him even more.

He knew that they weren't human, so then why did they seem to be?

* * *

><p>Yay, finished. These chapters just keep getting longer and longer, don't they? Well, anyway, Husky's really starting to doubt the whole '+anima aren't people' thing, and it's really confusing the poor kid.<p>

Well, hope you all liked the not-super-late chapter, and as always, please review.


	7. Ch 6 Measurements of Man

Hello again, readers of fan fiction. Somehow I managed to get this chapter out without being completely late (with absolutely no help from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Seriously. How did it take me so long to watch that? It's amazing~) Anyways, I should stop now before this just turns into me ranting about Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, new chapter now.

Chapter 6 - Measurements of Man

Prince Myrrha found himself still frowning in confusion once they'd gotten back to his room. Thankfully, there hadn't been any more incidents getting back than there had been going to the slave's quarters. He guessed that it was safe to say that he wasn't going to get in trouble, since no one would ever know he'd gone in the first place. Cooro seemed to have realized that as well, appearing quite pleased with their little escapade and that he'd been able to introduce the silver haired boy to another +anima.

Said boy wasn't listening to him at the moment as he continued to ramble on about something or another. He was barely able to make out something about apples, but he wasn't paying attention. Instead, he was still struggling through what he'd been thinking about in the hallway.

Maybe he shouldn't start making rash judgments about the laws when he'd only ever met two +anima though. There wasn't any way that they could possibly be an accurate representation of the whole race, after all.

Put that way though, did that mean he couldn't judge all the +anima he hadn't met before either? Since he really didn't know what they were like besides the stories he heard explaining why they needed to be slaves. But then why would those stories even exist if they weren't true? They _weren't _true about Cooro though. Dang it, none of this was making sense to the child.

"Ohhh," he groaned under his breath, running a hand through his silver hair in aggravation. It seemed to have quickly caught the winged anima's attention. Cooro stopped in his rant and looked the other boy over slightly, concern showing on his face.

"Myrrha? Something wrong?" he asked, easily noting the exasperated expression he wore. The prince stared at Cooro for a moment, hesitating on whether or not to actually tell him what he was thinking about. Even taking the fact that he was a +anima out of the picture, he didn't really seem to be all that deep a thinker. He might not really get what he was so torn up about. Of course, he _was_ an anima, so he might be able to help him out. He'd probably met a lot more of his kind than Myrrha ever would, after all.

"I'm just… kinda confused. About +anima," he started off with, still trying to work through the problem in his head. It clearly piqued the black haired boy's interest though.

"What do you mean?" he asked, the curiosity in his voice clear, and Myrrha shrugged slightly as he tried to think of the words to explain his dilemma.

"I don't know. You just act really… human, I guess, and so did that other anima slave. It's just surprising," he explained. The severe look of confusion that passed over the slightly older boy's face told him that he probably didn't do a very good job of that, however. Before he could ask what was wrong with _him _now, Cooro started talking.

"Human?" was all he said, the bewilderment in his voice clear. The silver prince simply nodded though, not quite understanding why _that _would be the thing that stumped him.

"Yeah. I didn't expect +anima to be so normal. It's really weird," he said. It didn't seem to be doing anything to help Cooro understand him any better though. Instead, he just tilted his head to the side, looking almost like a dog now instead of a bird.

"But…" he started slowly, "+anima _are _human. Why would it be weird that we act that way?" he asked. Myrrha blinked in surprise before shaking his head. Maybe it did kind of seem that way, but he still wasn't certain that Cooro and other palace slaves would be the exception as to how most +anima normally acted. He wasn't about to throw away everything he'd ever been taught all because of his aunt's strange choice for a birthday gift, after all.

Cooro had to understand that, right? Even if he seemed to be human, there was something _different _between real people and +anima. That didn't mean it was something bad though. He wasn't saying that.

"Well, not really. You're more like animals than actual people, right? That's what I've always been taught, anyway," he said. This time, Cooro was the one shaking his head, rather forcefully at that. Myrrha couldn't help but wonder if slaves were even allowed to disagree with their master, but didn't say anything on it. Instead, he just listened to whatever the black haired boy had to say. The reason he's started this conversation was because he'd wanted his opinion on the matter anyway.

"We're not animals. Why would being able to fly make me any less human than you are?" he asked. The silver prince stared at him as he tried to come up with an answer to his question. When it came right down to it, it was the fact that he wasn't able to find one that was causing the young boy so much confusion. Finally, the child sighed in defeat and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, but there has to be something. My dad wouldn't make you all slaves if there wasn't," he said at last. It didn't seem to reassure Cooro any though, and from the small frown on his face Myrrha was suddenly worried that he might have offended the normally hyperactive boy. He _did _just insist that he wasn't human and called him an animal, after all.

"I guess so…" he said quietly. The prince tried to ignore the slight guilt that decided to rest inside of him at that moment. It just felt wrong though, seeing the normally happy boy… _not _happy. Before he was able to decide on whether or not to say something, since Aunt Crystala had said that he had to take care of him, and he guessed that also meant making sure he wasn't sad, he started speaking again.

"Was that why you were afraid of me at first?" he asked, surprising the silver haired prince. Myrrha quickly started shaking his head, even if on the inside he couldn't help but admit that Cooro'd managed to hit the nail on the head.

"N-no! I already said I wasn't afraid of you," he insisted, but it didn't seem to convince the older boy any. He wasn't afraid though. At least, not anymore, so he didn't see why it would even matter now. Sighing, he started scratching the back of his head, trying to think of what exactly he was trying to say.

"Look, um, you know, I don't really care if you're human or not…" he mumbled, keeping his eyes turned towards the ground. "You're a lot nicer than any prince I've ever met before, so that has to count for something, at least," the silver boy finished awkwardly, remembering about how he'd thought the same earlier. To his relief, a smile morphed onto the crow +anima's face.

"Thanks, I'm glad you think that," he said. Myrrha nodded quickly, not entirely sure what he was supposed to do now. He found himself sighing in relief when Cooro quickly changed the subject after that, returning to what he'd been talking about before the silver boy had interrupted him. They didn't go back to the uneasy subject for the rest of the day either. Even still, Myrrha found the black haired boy's insistence stuck in the back of his mind even after he left to return to the slave quarter's that night.

Lying in his bed, the prince started going over the conversation they had had earlier once again.

A +anima would know better than anyone else just what they were, wouldn't they? So if Cooro said he was a human, then it was probably a little strange to say that he was wrong. That's exactly what he'd done though. But how could they possibly be human with all those amazing powers they had?

Pushing himself into a sitting position, the silver boy found himself frowning once again. It seemed to have suddenly come to him just why he was having such a hard time figuring out whether or not +anima counted as being humans or not. He had no idea what made someone quality as being human in the first place. Besides being… being… well, _not _being an animal. But it was more like +anima were… both? Or something.

So once again he found himself at a dead end with Cooro's question. _How _did the fact that he had wings make him not human?

Frowning, he flopped back down to his bed, glaring at the wall across from him in the darkness. What did it even matter whether or not +anima were animals or people or something else in between instead? It if was because they were slaves because of their powers, that didn't really matter all that much either. It didn't seem all that bad, Cooro didn't look like he minded it any.

He tried to convince himself that wasn't because he really wasn't treating Cooro like he imagined most slaves were probably treated. He couldn't picture his aunt being mean to any of her slaves though either. If +anima were really nice, then there wasn't any reason for anyone to abuse them or anything like that.

It was just like a job. _Lots _of people were paid to be servants and the like. They just couldn't quit.

Closing his eyes, the silver prince attempted to get some sleep. He had classes tomorrow morning, after all. He couldn't spend the entire night worrying about something that shouldn't even really matter all that much to him. Right now, +anima were slaves, and it would be forever before he became king. _If _he was going to change that, he still had plenty of time to think it over and figure out just what +anima really were. He still didn't think that his father would senselessly put hundreds or thousands of people into a bad position for no good reason.

He wasn't sure how long after that he ended up falling asleep, but he did know that he was much more tired than he normally was when Cooro woke him up the next morning. Very reluctantly he got dressed and headed to his first class.

The black haired boy had seemed to have completely gotten over or forgotten about what they'd talked about the day before. He was just as bubbly happy when Myrrha had left him in his room, something the younger boy found himself being unconsciously thankful for. He really hadn't meant to offend him or anything the other day, after all.

As was normal, his classes were slightly boring, but he paid attention as best as he could. He still couldn't help but be glad once they were finally over and he was able to go back to his room.

"Hey Cooro," he said as he walked inside. The young prince was slightly surprised to find him sitting in the center of his bed with a book resting in his lap. He didn't really seem like the type to be willing to sit still long enough to read a whole book. Before Myrrha had even managed to shut the door completely behind him the black haired boy was looking up at him, a smile once again plastered on his face.

"Hi Myrrha! I was bored, it's okay if I looked through some of your books, right?" he asked, and the silver boy nodded as he walked farther inside.

"Oh yeah, I don't mind," he said, heading over to sit at his desk, since Cooro was already taking up the bed. When he looked over at the black haired boy, he noticed that he didn't really seem to be paying much attention to what he was reading. Instead, he was flipping through the pages rather quickly, mostly skimming the content.

Yeah, that seemed much more like how Cooro would read something.

"So, everyone mostly just leaves you alone whenever I'm in my classes?" he asked, and the older boy nodded. Myrrha couldn't help but he thankful for that, even if he didn't quite understand it. The other princes were not the nicest people in the world, he had not doubt that it was only a matter of time before they started trying to target Cooro in a roundabout way of getting to him.

Of course, they might just not want to start messing with a +anima. Even though he'd already told them that he was only a crow, there wasn't really any way for Cooro to hurt them, even if he was allowed to fight back. Not that he could ever imagine the hyperactive child hurting anyone.

"That's good. If they do try to start anything, tell me, okay?" he asked, and once again the black haired boy nodded. A large smile was plastered on his face. He still didn't seem to quite understand the whole system that caused the princes to be so bitter to one another, but Myrrha didn't think that was all too important. It had nothing to do with him, after all.

"I will, don't worry," he said happily. This time it was the silver boy who nodded, although he wasn't all that certain he would be able to actually keep himself from worrying too much. Cooro did have wings though, so if anyone ever tried to mess with him he could just fly away.

Even if he _wasn't _human, something he kept trying to tell himself he wasn't doubting more and more, that didn't mean he didn't act enough like one that the other princes messing with him couldn't hurt. For some reason or another, he did not want the crow +anima to be hurt in any way.

He tried to tell himself that it was just because he'd promised Aunt Crystala that he'd take care of him.

* * *

><p>And finished. Husky's not quite able to get over his discrimination yet. Other things will start to happen soon, so hopefully no worries to anyone who thinks this might be getting boring.<p>

Anyway, thanks for reading and as always please review.


	8. Ch 7 Other Princes

Ah, sorry for taking forever again. Life was super hectic during the end of school, and then I was catching up with all of my other fan fictions, so yeah. Like I said, really sorry about that. Since it's summer now I should have a bit more time to update and such, so hopefully it shouldn't take another two months or other ungodly amounts of time.

Chapter 7- Other Princes

Cooro sat in prince Myrrha's room, flipping through one of the other boy's many books, but not really paying any attention to what it was about. Just like most every other day so far, the silver haired boy had to spend several hours in classes for when he became king, leaving Cooro alone to try to figure out what to do with the time as he waited.

He liked Myrrha so far, even if a few things about the prince were a bit strange. Cooro couldn't help but still feel a little odd about how he'd insisted that +anima weren't humans yesterday, but dismissed it easily enough. Ms. Crystala had told him that apparently a lot of people felt that way, and to not let it bother him. It wasn't like Myrrha treated him like he wasn't human anyway, so he guessed it didn't really matter.

And like he said before, he liked Myrrha. He doubted he'd actually meant anything bad yesterday. He'd basically been saying that he didn't understand how they weren't human, so it wasn't like he really thought they were like animals. Or at least, that's what Cooro hoped.

Standing up, the black haired boy placed the book back onto the bookshelf, although he couldn't remember exactly where he'd gotten it out from, so he just picked a random shelf and slid it in. It was still a few more hours before Myrrha would get done with his classes, and he was tired of reading. Or well, pretending to read. He didn't really like being cooped up with nothing to do, but the palace was really big. He'd yet to even explore much of the area in between the slave's quarters and where the princes stayed.

Without another thought Cooro started out of the room, intent on looking through more of the palace until Myrrha was finally back from his classes.

Walking down the long curved hallway, the black haired boy tried to think of where he could go. Myrrha had told him it would be a good idea to stay out of the way of the queens as best as he could (he'd then gone off muttering about how wicked and selfish and a number of other things all girls were, although Cooro had mostly decided to ignore that for now) so going to the fifth or sixth floor probably wouldn't be the best idea.

Rounding the bend, the nine year old quickly caught sight of the entranceways into the courtyard. He'd come here a lot of the other days that Myrrha was in class, and it was really cool from what he'd seen so far. It was like a whole forest, and they even had a lake in the center of it all. Turning into the courtyard, he decided it definitely wouldn't be the worst place to walk around as he thought about what to do.

There were a few other children in the courtyard as well, he guessed some of Myrrha's siblings. The silver haired prince had said that most of the others didn't have as many classes as him, since he was being trained for the kingship. Stealing a glance, he recognized a couple from the first time Myrrha had tried to show him around the palace, but couldn't for the life of him remember their names. He wasn't even sure if he'd ever even learned them.

"Hey, anima kid!" the black haired boy turned around to see the same boys he'd been looking at earlier calling him over. Or well, he guessed it was him, seeing as he was the only anima here.

"Hi! My name's Cooro by the way. What's yours?" he asked happily, clearly surprising the other boys slightly. The older redhead spoke first, having been the one to actually call him over in the first place.

"Um, Keane. This is Salim and Rida," he introduced, pointing to each of the slightly younger boy as he did. They were all still a few years older than Myrrha, but he was pretty sure that he was at least as old as Rida, or close to it. "So, you're like, a bird man, right?" Keane asked after a moment, looking the younger boy over with curiosity. Cooro thought for a second, not entirely sure how to answer that question.

"Kind of, I guess. I can grow wings, but I wouldn't really call myself a birdman" he said at last. The redhead nodded, and it seemed like he was about to say something else, only to be cut off by one of the other princes.

"That's so weird! Was one of your parents a bird or something?" Salim exclaimed, catching the younger boy completely off guard. Sure, Myrrha had said that he'd never actually met a +anima before him, but did they really know that little about them that they could think something like that?

"No, of course not. I never knew my parents," Cooro defended, although the last part of his statement didn't seem to convince the other boy any.

"One of them probably was a bird," he repeated. Before Cooro could try to defend himself again though, he was actually surprised to find Keane turning to Salim, frowning slightly.

"I don't think that's how anima work," he said, causing the brunette boy to cross his arms and look away. Cooro just nodded though, glad that at least one of them seemed to understand that. Even though he didn't remember a time when he was ever not a +anima, he knew that he wasn't literally part bird. That was just plain silly.

"That's _not _how it works. You become a +anima when something happens to you," the black haired boy tried to explain.

"Something like what? What happened to you?" Rida asked, and Cooro simply shrugged.

"I don't know, I don't remember it," he answered truthfully. The three didn't look like they really believed him though. Before any of them could act on that disbelief though, Keane scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Whatever. I still don't see why _Husky _gets to have a pet anima," he said, a bite now in his voice that hadn't been there before, and turned away from Cooro.

"It's cause he can't make friends on his own. Crystala had to _buy _him one," Rida mocked, to which Salim nodded in agreement. Cooro frowned though, quickly shaking his head to defend the silver boy. They were all brothers, right? He didn't get why they would be mean to Myrrha like that. Sure, he had said that they were all rivals for future power or something like that, but he wasn't even here right now.

"That's not true. Myrrha's nice," he said, although Keane quickly rolled his eyes. The black haired boy was a bit taken back. The redhead had seemed pretty nice before, at least not making any sorts of wild assumptions about his anima, just curious. Now that Myrrha was involved though, his whole demeanor seemed to have changed.

"Husky is a spoiled little _girl!_ But I guess you have to pretend to like him, being his slave and all," the redhead said angrily. Cooro quickly started shaking his head, although none of them really seemed to be paying him much attention anymore.

"I'm not pretending," he still said, but the three had started to walk off now, Rida and Salim following the still very clearly angered Keane. Cooro just stood their for a minute, trying to figure out what had just happened. Myrrha had said the other princes were mean and stuff, but they hadn't really seemed like that at first. A little bit rude and not knowing what they were talking about with +anima, yeah, but not mean. It was only when Myrrha himself was bought up did that change and they started making fun of him when he wasn't even there to defend himself.

Still uncertain about the whole thing, Cooro started out of the courtyard, not really sure if he wanted to chance talking with any of the other royal children at the moment. They were a lot different than people he was used to, even Myrrha. Quickly, he decided it would be best to ask Myrrha about what had happened once he got out of class.

Walking around the fourth floor, the black haired boy wasn't entirely sure how much longer before that happened, and decided it would just be best to head back to Myrrha's room just to make sure he wouldn't end up staying out too long. He was still surprised with how the silver boy had acted when he hadn't been in the room on the first day, despite being just seconds behind him. He guessed at the least it proved that he had been worried about him, which was nice.

Sitting down on the prince's empty bed, Cooro quickly found himself getting bored once again. A few minutes later the black haired +anima found himself asleep, curled up in the soft fabric.

Prince Myrrha was very surprised when he came into his room to find Cooro sleeping, of all things. It was weird seeing the normally hyperactive boy lying so still, and he was torn on whether or not he should wake him up.

After a moment, he decided to just let the boy sleep, sitting at his desk instead and starting to review a few things from his lessons. He didn't review as much as he used to, since Cooro came and was taking up a lot of his time now. Although so far he was still doing just as well in all of his classes, so he guessed it wasn't really hurting anything. It still wouldn't be a bad thing to use the time he had now just to make sure he understood everything though, since there really wasn't any reason to disturb Cooro.

The silver haired prince hadn't been paying much attention to the time, but he guessed it was probably about an hour later when Cooro started to wake up on his own. The nine year old slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, looking around the room a bit before he caught site of Myrrha still seated at his desk, nose in a book.

"Oh Myrrha! You're back," he said, still rubbing at one of his eyes sleepily. The prince just nodded, turning away from the book to look at him as he answered.

"Yeah, I finished classes about an hour ago. I didn't think you'd wanted to be woken up or anything," he said. Cooro just smiled at him, swinging his legs around so that they hung off the side of the bed.

"You could have woken me if you were bored or something, I don't mind," he told him, and Myrrha nodded softly. He still didn't think he would wake him up if he ever found him asleep in his room again, unless he needed to, but he did believe that Cooro really wouldn't have minded either way.

"That's fine, I was just studying a bit anyway, you would have been bored. Did anything happen while I was at class?" the silver boy asked, and Cooro frowned when his confusion from earlier was quickly bought back. That clearly caught Myrrha's attention, but before he could ask what had happened Cooro started talking.

"Nothing bad happened, but I talked to a couple of the other princes. Um, Keane, Rida, and uh… can't remember the last one," he said, scratching his head as he tried to remember the names. Myrrha just nodded, although he still looked wary about the whole situation. Cooro guessed he understood that now. If they always acted like they did when just talking about the silver prince, he could only imagine how they acted when alone with him. It was no wonder he thought they were mean.

"They didn't mess with you or anything, did they?" he asked, and Cooro quickly shook his head, not wanting to worry the silver boy any more than he already was.

"No," he started. He was a bit unsure on whether or not he should bring up what else had happened now, but decided to after a moment. "They were fine until they started to talk about you. Then they started being mean," he said. To his surprise, Myrrha didn't seem all too shocked, just rolling his eyes and turning back towards his book.

"Oh, was it just that? _Please_, don't let that bother you. I told you that the princes are all rivals and such, we fight all the time," he said. Cooro nodded slowly, but he still didn't think that it made much sense.

"But you weren't even there. Why would they be mean if you weren't even there to defend yourself?" he asked. Myrrha raised an eyebrow in confusion, once again turning back towards the crow +anima.

"What does that have to do with anything. They all hate me, so I highly doubt they would be any nicer when I'm not around than when I am," he said.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense…" he answered after a few seconds. It was clear that he still didn't think that this whole thing was very nice or liked it one bit, but wasn't going to press the subject anymore. Myrrha guessed that he just wasn't used to people being mean to each other. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It meant at the least that he'd never had to go through something like that, but if he was going to stay at the palace then it was probably something he'd have to get used to rather quickly.

"Look, don't let the other princes bother you, okay? I'm used to it, so whatever they say doesn't matter," Myrrha told him. Cooro thought for a few seconds before smiling and nodding at the younger boy. He guessed if he didn't care about it, then it really didn't matter, like he said. As long as they weren't actually hurting Myrrha, then it was fine.

"Okay," he answered happily. The silver prince smiled slightly and nodded back, before turning to his book once again. Cooro didn't mind though, since he knew he needed to learn a lot of stuff for when he became king one day.

So he kind of was sort of bought as a friend for the silver prince, but that didn't mean he was pretending or he didn't really like him or any of that stuff. Myrrha seemed nice after all, so he didn't mind it one bit.

* * *

><p>And once again, sorry for the huge delay. Look though, a chapter focusing on Cooro instead. Is it bad that it's just hard for me to write Keane as a mean kid? I could go on and on about how I see his position and mindset and everything, but I wont take up your time. I do hope you all liked the chapter though, and as always thanks for reading and please review.<p> 


	9. Ch 8 The Problem With Princesses

Hey peoples. Wanted to get the new chapter up before I headed out to California and forced you all to wait an ungodly amount of time again, and it seems I've managed to succeed. Hooray.

But yes, don't really have much to say about this, so how about we just get onto the actual chapter.

Chapter 8 - The Problem with Princesses

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful for Myrrha. Cooro didn't mention having any problems with the other princes, and his classes stayed constant and boring. If anything, he was surprised with how quickly his life had fallen into a new sense of normal. It wasn't slightly jarring anymore when he went into his room and found Cooro there every day.

What was very jarring, however, was coming into his room after classes and _not _finding Cooro there. The young prince immediately told himself not to panic like he'd done the first day. It was pretty clear that Cooro wasn't the most grounded person in the world, he'd probably just got distracted or something and lost track of time. Myrrha definitely wasn't about to put it past him.

But there was still the fact that Cooro was _always _here when he came back from class.

"C-cooro?" he called into the empty room, half expecting the boy to jump out of some hiding place and scare him. When no answer came Myrrha's frown deepened. Had something happened to him?

Of course not. The palace was one of the safest places in the country, they had guards and such stationed everywhere. If he did get hurt, someone would have quickly found him and gotten him help. Sure, there was always a chance that one (or many) of his half-brothers could have decided to pick on him, but were they really brave enough to mess with a +anima? Sure, Cooro wouldn't actually be allowed to fight back if they did, and _he _knew that the crow +anima would never hurt a fly, but that didn't mean they did.

Either way, the silver haired prince quickly spun on his heel, leaving his room to look for the missing boy. It wasn't that he was worried or anything like _that_. Cooro was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and if anything did happen, he could just fly away.

He just forgot to shut his door, it wasn't that he was in a rush or anything.

…

Cooro blinked in confusion at the group of girls giggling in front of him. Myrrha had talked to him about the princes and the queens, he wasn't exactly fond of either group, but he never really mentioned the princesses before. The black haired boy assumed they also fell under his frequent rants about how 'selfish, noisy and catty' all girls are, but Cooro really didn't believe that was true.

The group had called him over, but once he'd come and said hi and introduced himself all they did was giggle and whisper to each other, then look at him and whisper some more. Cooro was very quickly getting uncomfortable, and starting looking around for an excuse to leave.

Before he was able to one of the princesses, a girl with curly blonde hair who was maybe a year or two younger than Myrrha finally spoke to him.

"You're funny looking," she said, causing the crow +anima to frown slightly and his shoulders to droop.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to someone," he said back, but none of the girls really seemed to pay him any mind, much like the princes had done when he'd tried to defend Myrrha last week.

Another one of the princesses smiled at him, taking a step forward so that she was in front of the other girls. She was rather tall, and seemed to be the oldest out of the bunch. Her brown hair was pulled up into an intricate bun, several golden copper flowers strung throughout it. She seemed to look him over once more, almost like she was sizing him up before finally speaking.

"I'm Janan. We were just thinking that it must be so _boring _having to wait around for your master while he's in those stupid, long classes all day," she said, and Cooro quickly shook his head.

"It's fine. Myrrha needs to go to class so that he can learn how to be a good king and stuff, and exploring the castle is really fun," he told her truthfully. The brunette nodded and smiled at him once again, although she didn't really seem to believe what he said.

"Right, sure. Anyway, we thought that maybe you could play with us instead of just waiting around for your master to come back," Janan suggested. Cooro looked over the group of princesses as he thought about what she said. They were pretty weird… but it did sound like it would be more fun to be able to play with someone instead of trying to amuse himself. Besides, he doubted they could be all that bad.

"Okay! That sounds like fun," he said at last, a few of the girls giggling once again when he did, while Janan just curling her lips into a smile. These girls sure giggle a lot. Before he was able to say anything else, two of the princesses grabbed his arms and started pulling him out of the courtyard.

They were all talking very excitedly to each other, and Cooro could barely keep up with what they were saying. Suddenly, the girls turned and pushed him into a room, setting him down on a bed, arguing over what to do with him now. The black haired boy couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated, every time he opened his mouth one of the younger princesses quickly shushing him.

"Let's dress him up!" the little blonde princess who had said he looked funny suggested, quickly ending the argument that had been brewing with everyone seeming to agree with her idea. Cooro blinked in confusion as a few of the girls ran towards a closet, turning towards Janan. She was the only one who didn't seem to be bouncing off the walls in excitement, instead just watching the scene with a look of amusement on her face.

"Dress up?" the black haired boy asked, a slightly skeptical, scared tone to his voice. The brunette chuckled slightly at his question before waving her hand as if to brush away any of his concerns.

"Oh, come now Cooro, let the girls have their fun. They're not going to hurt you," she told him smoothly, and a bit reluctantly the crow +anima nodded. He guessed she was right, they did seem pretty excited about it, and it would be mean of him to tell them they couldn't play. Besides, dressing up didn't sound that bad, maybe it really would be fun.

Cooro quickly found himself in layers of clothes that didn't match at all, and at least half of which he was positive weren't actually boy's clothes. They kept pulling things off of him to put more on, telling him to spin around and such before pushing him back down on the bed to change the outfit once again.

The black winged boy winced when one of the younger princesses roughly pulled out his small braid and started trying to put some pins in his hair. He found himself turning towards Janan once again. She hadn't actually dressed him up or anything like that, instead just watching them like this was some kind of show and chuckling at some of the more ridiculous outfits they put him in.

"I thought you said they _weren't _going to hurt me," he said, and once again the brunette princess laughed softly.

"You all heard him, be a bit more careful with the +anima, alright?" was all she said, but thankfully the younger girls did seem to listen to her rather well, quickly responding that they would.

Looking up at the clock, Cooro's eyes widened at the time and he quickly tried to stand up, only to be pushed down once again.

"No, you're not done yet!" one of the princesses exclaimed, and Cooro smiled down at her as he tried to explain.

"Sorry, but I have to get back to Myrrha's room now. His classes will be over soon and he'll get really worried if I'm not there when he comes back," he said, rather glad that he finally had an excuse to leave. Playing with someone wasn't quite as fun as he thought it'd be when he wasn't allowed to make any decisions or talk back without being cut off half the time.

Much to his surprise, none of the princesses seemed to care, instead ignoring him to pick out more clothes and grabbing his arm to stuff a few more bracelets on his wrist.

"Janan," he said, turning towards the older girl and hoping that she could call the others off so that he could leave. She just smiled again though, once again waving her hand at him as if there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

"Don't worry Cooro, I'm _sure _Myrrha will understand if you're just a little late," she told him, causing the black haired boy to frown. It wasn't that he was afraid the silver prince was going to get mad at him, although he probably would, at least at first, but he didn't want to worry him. Even more than that, he _promised _he would always be in his room when he came back from class.

Once again, when he tried to stand up he was pushed down, one of the girls yanking roughly on his hair afterwards and causing him to yelp.

"Don't go! We're having fun!" she demanded. Slowly, Cooro slumped down where he sat.

He _really _hoped Myrrha wouldn't be too upset with him.

…

The silver prince quickly made his way into the courtyard, one of the places Cooro had said he spent a lot of time at during the day. Scanning the immediate area, he didn't see any sign of the crow +anima, and found his frown deepen slightly. Starting forward, he called the other boy's name as he continued to look around.

It wasn't very long before he caught sight of Keane and a few of the other older princes. Sighing in aggravation, he started over to the small group.

"Hey Keane! Have you seen Cooro around anywhere?" he asked, immediately catching all three's attention. The redhead just smirked down at him mockingly, a bit of a knowing glint in his eye.

"What's the matter Husky? Did your little pet run away?" he asked, causing the younger boy to roll his eyes.

"If you don't know where he is just say so, so that I can keep looking, and if you _do _then shut up and tell me already," he spat. Keane crossed his arms, glaring at the silver haired prince, but reluctantly answered.

"All I know is that I saw Janan and a bunch of the other princesses drag him off somewhere," he said, watching as Myrrha cringed slightly. He was smirking once again at his disgruntle expression from the news, and another prince behind him quickly joined in.

"They probably turned him into a living dress up doll!" he told the young boy, the three laughing at the thought as Myrrha quickly turned on his heels and started back into the palace.

So stupid. What in the world did the princesses want Cooro for anyway? Walking down the hallway, he struggled to remember exactly which room was Janan's, ending up going into two wrong rooms, or at least, he assumed they were wrong because they were empty, before finally hearing a bunch of giggling behind one of the doors. Sighing once again, he quickly pushed the door open, an already extremely annoyed expression on his eight year old face.

He couldn't help but wince when he saw that the other princes had been right. They _had _turned Cooro into a living dress up doll. He looked absolutely ridiculous, although Myrrha couldn't help but notice the look of relief that passed over his face once the black haired boy saw him.

"What in the world are you _girls _doing to him?" he asked, stomping into the room and roughly pulling Cooro off of the bed. The crow +anima quickly started taking off piece of jewelry now that the princesses had backed off of him slightly.

"Oh come on _Husky, _they were just having some fun," Janan said, standing up from her chair and walking over to the younger boy. Myrrha glared up at the tall girl, already knowing that she had most likely been the ringleader to all of this.

"Cooro's supposed to be in my room when I get back from class! And I never said you girls could mess with him in the first place," the silver prince fought back.

"I told them I was supposed to go back, but they wouldn't let me," Cooro chimed in quietly. Myrrha nodded slightly to show that he'd heard him before turning back to glare at Janan. It was much more than most of the princesses had done when he'd tried to talk. The tall girl was smirking down at the two, not appearing very threatened by Myrrha in the least.

"Please, it wasn't like we hurt him or anything. The +anima even agreed to come with us, so I don't see what the problem is," she said. Myrrha practically growled at the princess before turning on his heels. Cooro had just managed to take the last piece of mismatch clothing they'd stuffed on him off when he'd grabbed his wrist, starting to drag him out of the room.

"He's _my _+anima, so you girls better leave him alone!" he yelled back, slamming the door behind them and walking angrily back to his room. Cooro kept quiet the entire time, Myrrha not letting go of him until they were in the prince's room once again and the boy flopped down on his bed in an annoyed huff.

"Stupid girls…" he grumbled into his pillow. Cooro wasn't quite sure what to do, slowly starting over to his desk before sitting down.

"Hey Myrrha?" he said after a moment, the prince glancing over at him slightly as he did.

"Yeah?" he asked, not really sounding particularly interested but answering him all the same.

"It did actually kind of hurt, when they were messing with my hair. One of them pulled it really hard," he said. Myrrha stared at him for a moment, as if not quite understanding what he meant, before starting to chuckle slightly. It wasn't like Janan's though, her's was almost… creepy, in a way.

"That's the problem with girls, they always lie," he told him, adding yet another thing to his seemingly ever growing list as to why girls are so horrible. Cooro couldn't help but smile, glad that the silver prince seemed to be cheering up slightly.

"I don't think _all _girls are like that," he said hesitantly. Myrrha seemed to think that over for a moment, before appearing to come to a decision and shrugging slightly.

"Whatever. It's the problem with princesses at least," he amended. Cooro laughed slightly and nodded a bit, even if he didn't fully believe that all princesses _always_ lie. It was just nice to be back with Myrrha, someone who actually seemed to pay attention to him when he talked.

* * *

><p>And done. This chapter was really hard to start, but once I got into the flow it got much easier. Yes, princesses. I have three stories all set in Sailand, and this is the first one to actually get a princess not only named but to have dialogue as well. What can I say, female OCs scare me.<p>

Well, I do hope you all liked the chapter, as always thanks for reading and please review.


	10. Ch 9 A Slight Shift in Thinking

Hey there everybody. So, I've been trying to put a lot of thought into where I really want this story to go recently. Pretty sure I have it figured out, the only thing is - surprise, surprise - it's a little bit darker than where I'd originally thought it'd go. Which, if you've read any of my other +anima stories, shouldn't really be any sort of shock. I do plan to try to keep this in the same light vein as we've started off with, but might have to knock the rating up to K+.

I do hope no one minds, and that you all like the 'plot' that shall soon become more apparent. Within the next two chapters, most likely.

Chapter 9 - A Slight Shift in Thinking

Prince Myrrha tried to keep himself from yawning as his teacher continued to drone on about the founding of Sailand as the empire it was today. This was something he'd already heard about a hundred times now, he hardly needed to be going over it again.

Even still, the silver haired boy managed to fool his teacher into thinking he was actually paying attention to the repeat lecture about the countries that Sailand had concurred and absorbed into their country. Although technically, this was something he had to deal with almost every day, what with the harem being a direct result of all that.

Sure, it wasn't exactly as the original harem had been, what with the queens being the daughters of noblemen and the incredibly rich now instead of defeated kings. There was still a bit of that original rivalry left though, it seemed. Like when the other princes would always bother about his voice, with the heavy accent of the northern country his mother had come from.

Besides that though, there were only a few other telltale signs of the countries that many of the princes and queens resided from. Like Lady Dylana's and Keane's bright red hair, which was really only found, at least in Sailand, in what was originally a country that had been west of Stella, on the other side of a small mountain chain.

Myrrha once again had to focus in on his teacher, his mind having wandered away from whatever it was he'd been saying quite a bit. Luckily, the older man had seemed distracted today as well. Thinking about it though, most of his teachers had been a bit out of it for about a week now.

The silver boy didn't let himself dwell on that very much, his class having ending right around that moment. Most of his teachers were also a part of the advisory staff for the king, so it wasn't really a surprise that they tended to have more than one thing on their minds at a time.

Getting up and leaving the room, Myrrha couldn't help but find himself grateful that he only had one more class before they were done for the day. It was Saturday too, which meant he had tomorrow off. Cooro had been excited about that this morning. It was clear that the hyperactive boy tended to get a bit bored having to wait for him all day.

It had also been rather clear after yesterday that trying to play with the princesses wasn't really an option. Myrrha actually felt bad for him, seeing as really the black haired boy couldn't actually say no to the princesses if they decided that they wanted to use him as their doll again.

The silver prince got a feeling that even if he _could_ tell them no, Cooro probably wouldn't.

Stepping into his classroom, Myrrha tried to focus once again as he greeted his teacher. The old man barely even nodded to show that he'd heard though, causing Myrrha to frown slightly. Not that he seemed to notice, too busy going over a few papers laid out on a table in front of him.

The young boy sat at the other end of the table quietly and waited for his tutor to finish up whatever it was he seemed so focused on. If it was important, it would be bad if he tried to interrupt him. Besides, he happened to actually like this teacher. He wasn't like most of the others, who got offended whenever Myrrha would question their teachings. He actually seemed to enjoy debating with the young Crown Prince, instead of seeing it as an insult.

It wasn't long though before the older man quickly pushed all of the papers into a slightly haphazard pile and finally turned his attention towards Myrrha.

"Ah, good morning Prince Myrrha, so sorry for the delay," he apologized, the silver boy quickly shaking his head.

"That's fine, Lord Ebrahim," he said. The tutor smiled and nodded slightly, but Myrrha couldn't help but think that he still looked slightly distracted, glancing over towards the piles of papers now pushed to a corner of the table as he began to teach.

Despite this, it was quickly pushed to the back of the young boy's head when their lesson quickly started turning towards +anima. So far he hadn't had a single lesson concerning +anima much at all since his birthday and receiving Cooro. As he listened to Lord Ebrahim explain how the slave trade benefited multiple facets of the country's economy, Myrrha found himself frowning.

Before he would have just listened to the lecture without really questioning it at all. It made sense, after all. Everything did show that it actually did help in creating and controlling a huge portion of their economy, but…

"But what about the actual slaves?" Myrrha found himself asking before bothering to edit himself. It was really starting to confuse him now though. Sure, Cooro seemed to be pretty happy in his position, but the prince knew deep down that he wasn't exactly treating him like a normal slave probably was. He still had no idea how normal slaves _were _treated, but something about the whole thing was just starting to feel off to him.

Despite his wings and feathers, it was getting increasingly hard to think of Cooro has 'not human.'

"What about the slaves?" Lord Ebrahim asked back, not quite understanding his question. Myrrha quickly tried to keep himself from floundering as he attempted to explain what he meant without actually bringing Cooro into it. Something just told him that probably wouldn't be the best idea.

"I was just wondering, if the slaves were ever unhappy with their position, isn't it possible that they could try to demand freedom?" he asked. He knew that they didn't have slavery in Asteria, and that country seemed to be doing just fine. A serious expression came over his teacher's face, and the man nodded a bit solemnly.

"That's a very high possibility Prince Myrrha, and a good question indeed. If there ever was a rebellion of the slave class, that would be an extremely difficult and complex situation. The best solution would be to attempt to stifle the rebels as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's situations like that which can turn into full fledge revolutions, and that's not something the country would want at all," he explained. Myrrha nodded, although he wasn't entirely sure how much he liked that answer.

The way he'd said it was a very high possibility didn't sit right with him at all either. Did that mean that the slaves really were unhappy already? That didn't sound like a good thing. As his teacher continued on, he tried to tell himself that it wasn't something he really needed to be worrying about. He wouldn't be king for years and years, he had plenty of time before he needed to make any real decisions on the subject.

That didn't make his mind settle down any, leaving the young prince just as distracted as his teacher seemed to be during the rest of the lesson.

…

Myrrha sighed as he walked back to his room after class. Opening the door, he couldn't help but be relieved at actually seeing Cooro in there this time. The black haired boy was all smiles as he jumped up from Myrrha's bed.

"Hi Myrrha! How were your classes today?" Cooro asked. The prince simply shrugged as he sat down in his desk chair, mind already starting to wonder as he looked at the crow +anima.

He _seemed _like he was happy. He was always smiling all the time, after all, and he would get all excited about every little thing.

"They were fine, although my teachers all seemed really distracted today," he answered, absently rubbing at one of his earrings as he thought. Cooro cocked his head to the side, seeming genuinely interested in what Myrrha had said.

It brought the silver boy back to something he'd thought of pretty soon after he'd gotten Cooro. Did slaves actually care about their masters? He still didn't know. Sure, the crow +anima did seem to like him, he guessed. But what if… what if he was just acting because he was his master? Slaves were supposed to respect and listen to everything their masters said, after all. It wasn't like he could be openly hostile to him like the other princes could.

"Why were they distracted?" Cooro asked. Once again Myrrha shrugged, barely even registering the question.

"I don't have any idea, they didn't say," he told him truthfully. The black haired boy just nodded, not seeming to really mind too much. Cooro frowned though when he noticed the look of concentration that made its way onto the eight year old prince's face. He always seemed so serious all the time, not like his age at all. It didn't bother Cooro any, but something just seemed off about him today.

It looked like Myrrha's teachers weren't the only ones with something on their mind.

"Myrrha? Is everything okay?" he asked after a moment of silence. The prince nodded almost instinctively, although he didn't actually say anything. Cooro deflated slightly at the answer, sitting back down on Myrrha's bed. It was clear that wasn't actually the truth, but he wasn't going to press him if he was something he didn't want to talk about. Neither boy said anything for a moment, before the prince's head finally shot over towards him, startling Cooro slightly.

"Are you unhappy?" he asked, shocking the +anima. Cooro could only stare at him for a moment while he tried to figure out what in the world he meant, and why he would even ask him something like that in the first place.

"What do you mean?" he ended up saying, not really able to figure it out based solely on those three words. Myrrha sighed, quickly looking away from the slightly older boy as he tried to elaborate.

"I don't know. One of my teachers was talking about slavery today, and I was just wondering… are you unhappy being a slave?" he mumbled.

"Ohhh," Cooro said, understanding what he was trying to get at now. A large smile started making its way onto his face, and the black haired boy giggled slightly.

"Maybe I would be, if I had someone _else_ as my master," Cooro said, surprising Myrrha, who turned to actually look at him again. The silver prince still had a frown on his face, it clear that he didn't quite understand what he meant by that. The black haired boy quickly began to explain before he could ask.

"I like you Myrrha, you're really nice. So, I don't mind having you as my master," he said. The prince stared at him for a moment, not used to having someone besides his father complimenting him. His mind wandered to the idea that maybe Cooro was just lying so that he wouldn't offend him or something like that, but looking the smiling boy over, that really didn't seem like him at all.

"Oh… um, thanks then. That's… good, I guess," he mumbled, once again not looking the crow +anima in the eyes, although now it was more about of embarrassment than anything else. Thankfully though, Cooro quickly changed the subject.

"So you don't have any classes tomorrow, right? So we can have fun all day?" he asked, once again back to his hyperactive self. Myrrha chuckled slightly and nodded, even if the concept of 'having fun all day' was a bit lost on him. He figured Cooro would probably be able to think of something for them to do.

"Yeah, I don't have classes, you can relax," he told him. Myrrha wasn't very surprised when the crow +anima instantly started trying to figure out just what they could do during the free day.

Normally, his mind tended to wander slightly when Cooro would start talking like this, not quite able to keep up with the way he spoke at a mile a minute. This time though, he tried a bit harder to actually focus. His mind had been going all over the place all day, so he really should be able to concentrate on something if just a little bit.

Cooro had managed to quell the one thing that had been bothering him, after all. Whatever it was bothering his teachers didn't really matter enough to focus on anyway. If it was that important, they would tell him.

So instead the silver prince actually managed to smile slightly as he listened to Cooro's random, and some quite frankly just impossible, plans for what they could do tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Okay, so the sweetness is still full speed ahead here. I don't think that's going to really leave anytime soon, so that's a good thing at least. We are starting to set up for the plot now, so I'm getting a bit excited for that. For some reason chapter 10 seems to always be a major one in all of my stories. That's all I'm saying ;)<p>

Anyway, thanks a bunch for reading and please review.


	11. Ch 10 Shattering

Hello reading people, got around to getting a new chapter out, it seems. I'm a bit excited for where this story is heading, now that I actually know just what that's going to be. That should become clear by the end of this chapter, or at least, you'll be able to see the beginnings of it. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 10 - Shattering

The next morning Myrrha couldn't help but be slightly glad about his lack of classes. Not just because Cooro had obviously seemed pretty excited about the prospect, but because he wouldn't have to deal with any of his teachers and could actually relax for once. Not that he really minded his classes all that much, but they did tend to be a bit much sometimes.

As he got dressed, the young prince tried to think of what could have been making his teachers act so strangely lately. It wasn't that anything was changing in his lessons, but the way they just were acting seemed off somehow. Like there was something else constantly on their minds, or that there was a sense that things were just wrong. As far as he knew though, there wasn't really any major changes going on with any laws or things like that. Everything in his life seemed pretty much the same as it always was.

Was there something happening outside of the palace that he didn't know about? He wouldn't have any idea, really. The world outside of his home almost didn't seem real to him at times. He'd never once stepped foot outside in a place besides the courtyard or balconies, and neither had any of the other royal children either. Those places couldn't exactly be called outside of the palace either. His only real connection to the outside was Aunty Crystala. And now Cooro…

That was right, Cooro had only come to the palace a very short time ago. It was still before his teachers had started acting strangely, but maybe he might still be able to have some idea about what could be going on. There was a chance that maybe news had been slow to travel into the palace or something like that, so he could know something that way.

And besides, he couldn't help but be slightly curious about how the rest of the world really was like. Since he was going to be king when he grew up, he wouldn't really have many chances to actually go see it himself. He'd probably be able to leave for political reasons, like meeting with the rulers of other countries and such, but that was about it.

It wasn't very long at all before Cooro came bounding into his room. The black haired boy seemed just as excited about the day as he had last night.

"Hey Cooro," Myrrha greeted as he came in, pushing the door close behind him. The older boy smiled at him as he jumped onto his bed.

"Hiya! How are you doing today?" Cooro asked happily. Myrrha simply shrugged as he answered. It was only the morning after all, not exactly much had been able to happen yet to make his day any good or bad.

"Fine, I guess," he said. The silver haired boy hesitated slightly, wondering if he should take this as a chance to ask him about what his life had been like outside of the palace. Before he could fully decide on whether to ask or not though Cooro quickly started speaking once again. He really should have expected that, the crow +anima was almost constantly going a mile a minute after all.

"That's good. So, what do you want to do, huh?" he asked. Myrrha decided to just let his own question drop for now. There would be plenty of time to ask him about it, and he doubted that whatever everyone was all nervous about was really _that _urgent.

He didn't get to just have fun very often, so maybe he should just concentrate on doing that today. It would certainly make Cooro happy, after all.

Myrrha wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do today, despite all of the suggestions Cooro had thought of the night before. It really didn't matter to him, so he ended up letting the other boy pick out a few games for them to play instead. Thankfully none of them ended up having any sorts of little tricks like that lava game from before did either. Although really, that hardly bothered him now.

By the time noon had come and passed however, it was clear that Cooro was starting to get a little antsy staying in one room.

"Let's go play in the courtyard," the black haired boy suggested, not surprisingly at all. Myrrha couldn't help but frown slightly though. It wasn't that he didn't like going out there or anything, it was nice with all of the plants and stuff. It was just that…

"What about all of the other princes and princesses and stuff? They're out there too," he said. Cooro just cocked his head to the side in confusion though, apparently not really seeing why that would be any problem.

Before he was able to ask though, Myrrha quickly shook his head. He didn't care if anyone was out there, he just didn't really feel like getting into a fight today. It'd be fine though, and he certainly didn't want Cooro thinking he was afraid of the other princes or anything like that. If anyone decided to mess with them, he could handle it. He just didn't want Cooro to have to get involved.

"Never mind. We can go outside, sure," he said quickly. Cooro smiled brightly and jumped up from his spot, Myrrha following him at a bit of a slower pace. They were almost at the courtyard when the silver prince stopped, something moving out of the corner of his eye catching his attention.

Janan was slinking up the stairwell outside of the courtyard, heading towards the fifth floor. Myrrha frowned as he tried to think of why she would be doing that. The next floor up was just one of the two floors for the queens. It was pretty clear that she wasn't exactly supposed to be going up there too, from the way she sneakily peaked around the corner before quickly disappearing from view.

"Just what is she up to…?" Myrrha mumbled, catching Cooro's attention.

"Huh, what ya talking about Myrrha?" the black haired boy asked, spinning around so that he faced him. The prince simply shrugged, although he was still staring up at the stairs. Something just didn't feel right…

"Nothing. I saw Janan sneaking up to the queen's floor for some reason, I was just wondering why," he explained. Cooro nodded, now looking up as well.

"Janan huh? She seems okay, but kind of… I don't know, creepy," the crow +anima said, actually causing Myrrha to laugh, something rather rare for the young prince. Creepy, huh? That definitely fit the older girl, for sure. She was always trying to act all grown up and older than everyone else. Well, she actually _was _older than everyone else, beating Keane by just a few months, but she was still hardly the adult she pretended to be.

"You're right about that," he said, before quickly shaking his head and starting towards the courtyard once again. "Whatever though, if she wants to sneak around and get in trouble, it's none of my business," he added. Cooro hesitated slightly, taking one last glance back up at the stairs before nodding and following the younger boy once again.

A bit to Myrrha's relief, no one seemed very interested in bothering him and Cooro when they first went into the courtyard. Well, either that, or they didn't feel like having to run after them with the speed Cooro had randomly decided to pull him along at.

It didn't quite click in Myyrha's head that so far Cooro, _his slave,_ had been the one making most of the decisions for whenever they were doing anything.

They ended up in one of the back corners of the courtyard, pretty much away from everyone else. Myrrha couldn't help but wonder if Cooro had done this on purpose, but seeing the boy get distracted by every little flower and bug, he doubted it. He probably just chose a random direction and ran until he couldn't go any farther anymore.

"So, what do you want to do out here?" Myrrha asked, leaning up against one of the trees. Cooro turned away from the bug sitting on a large leaf he'd been staring at in order to look back at the prince again, shrugging slightly as he did.

"I don't know. I can't remember if I've gone to this corner of the courtyard yet," he said. Myrrha was about to speak again when the older boy quickly became distracted once more.

"Oh wow! That tree has flowers for leaves!" he said excitedly, causing Myrrha to raise an eyebrow in question.

"It doesn't really have flowers for leaves, it just has flowers right now, the leaves will come after they all-" he tried to explained, quickly cutting himself off when Cooro allowed his wings to unfurl behind him, flying up so that he could have a better look at the flowers.

"You really can fly…" he mumbled, recapturing Cooro's attention. The winged boy stared at him in confusion for a moment, before smiling brightly and heading back down over to him. He didn't quite land though, still keeping himself several feet off the ground, so that Myrrha had to look up at him.

"Oh yeah, you've never really seen me fly before, have you?" Cooro said, and Myrrha simply shook his head. Besides the few times he'd been hovering around his room, he hadn't really seen the boy really flying.

For some reason though, after the initial surprise, it really didn't feel all that strange. Cooro definitely looked pretty comfortable flying, that was for sure. It seemed like something he'd done all of his life. The prince couldn't help but wonder if all +anima were that comfortable with their powers. He guessed they would be, since it was a part of them and everything.

After that, the two simply decided to hang out in the empty corner of the courtyard. Cooro took the chance to fly from tree to tree, clearly excited about getting to stretch out his wings out a bit.

Myrrha was surprised by the amount of time they ended up spending out in the courtyard. The sun was just starting to set by the time they started heading back towards the palace entrance in order to get something to eat for dinner. Cooro had to eat with the other slaves of course, but the boy didn't really seem to mind all that much.

They weren't quite able to reach the inside of the palace when a few of the other princes caught sight of them.

"Hey Husky!" Keane called, immediately causing the silver boy to sigh in annoyance as he turned around. And they'd been so close to being able to not have to deal with them today too…

"What do you want?" he asked, hoping that they could just get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Oh nothing, we were just wondering how you were doing, princess," the redhead said, instantly causing Myrrha to practically growl in anger.

"I am _not _a girl!" he yelled, fists balled up now. None of the other boys seemed particularly threatened by him though, despite the fact that the younger prince had shown in the past that he could hold his own in their fights. It was really just the fact that he was always out numbed that made it so they could beat him up all the time.

"Really? You know, you really shouldn't lie about things like that," one of the other princes said, irritating Myrrha even further.

"Why you _stupid_-" he spat, getting cut off when Cooro started shaking his shoulder, surprising and irritating him slightly. He'd nearly forgotten about the other boy. When he looked over at him, he was staring off into the palace for some reason.

"Myrrha…?" he said, confusion clear in his voice. Before anyone was able to ask what was wrong though Janan came barreling out of the palace, immediately collapsing to her knees in front of the group of boys. No one was able to say anything for a moment, confusion leaving them silent while the brunette panted, shaking her head back and forth as she tried to catch her breath.

"What's wrong with you?" Keane managed to ask at last. Janan shook her head once more as she began speaking.

"I-I went to… to the s-sun tower…" she started shakily. This was really weird. None of the other children could remember anything ever messing with the older princess so much. That was one of the annoying things about her, how she always acted so in control of everything, even them, despite the fact that the princesses really didn't have any power in the grand scheme of things. She certainly never kneeled down in front of any of the princes before, that was for sure.

"Yeah, I saw you sneaking up to the queen's floor," Myrrha mumbled. There was a walkway between the fifth floor and the Sun Tower, she must have used that to get there. That's why she'd been sneaking around like that. Janan just barely managed to nod before continuing again.

"I didn't know… but then everyone was freaking out, and I just… I didn't…" she stumbled. She kept shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe what she was saying.

"What happened?" Cooro asked gently, surprising Myrrha slightly. The silver prince didn't have much time to pay attention to that though, Janan taking a deep breath to steady herself again before speaking.

"Father… the king… The king is _dead!"_

* * *

><p>Dun, dun, duuuun! What, did you really think I could go a story without killing someone off? I never realized how much I actually do that until now. Funnily enough I hate killing characters. But yes, I guess you could say we're gonna start getting into a new arc of the story now, and some new main plotty goodness. I hope you all will like it.<p>

I hope you liked this chapter as well, and as always, thanks for reading and please review.


	12. Ch 11 Depths of Denial

Hey people. Gah, sorry for taking so long for the next chapter. I ended up doing this thing where you move from the east coast to the west coast for college, and it turns out that tends to mess with your ability to write a bit. It's not even that I didn't have time to write, I was just so out of my normal routine that I couldn't. I've pretty much gotten over that now though, so we can have new chapter.  
>And I promise not to take forever for the next update either. In fact, I can promise (hopefully) that it shall be on the 23rd, for the one year anniversary (wow, this story does not feel that old at all).<p>

Chapter 11 – Depths of Denial 

No one said anything for a moment, instead just staring down at the normally haughty princess practically trembling on the ground.

Myrrha felt that both his heart and his ability to breath had just suddenly stopped. There… there was no way. This couldn't be right; Janan had to have made some sort of mistake. The palace was safe. There was no way their father could just die out of the blue like that. There would have been a single… some sort of warning. Anything.

"Liar!" Keane yelled, startling the other children out of their stupors. Processing what he'd said, the silver prince was a bit surprised to find that he hadn't actually been the one to say something along those lines first. That didn't stop him from instantly agreeing all the same.

"W-what?" Janan asked, as if she didn't understand what he said. Myrrha didn't bother to let the redhead explain himself, instead jumping in with his own reasoning.

"There's no way the king could be dead! Girls always lie!" he spat, what was probably the first time ever that he and Keane had actually been on the same side of an argument.

Janan's shocked face quickly contorted into a frown. Despite the fierce glare she managed to form, her anger wasn't quite as convincing as it normally would be, mostly due in no small part to the way she was still on her knees and the strange shine over her eyes that Myrrha definitely wasn't used to seeing.

"I'm not _lying!_ Why would I lie about something like this?!" she yelled. The young prince found he really didn't have an answer to that. Why would something lie about something so horrible? Thankfully, or else he would have begun to doubt himself; one of the other princes quickly came up with an answer instead.

"For attention! That's what you're always after!" he yelled back. The hurt look on the girl's face managed to surprise Myrrha, but he quickly tried to ignore it. She had to be acting or something. She just wanted to trick them, and was upset that it wasn't working. The king wasn't sick or anything like that. The palace was safe, so there was no way someone could have broken in to kill him. There was no way for him to have died, so it just _had to _be a lie.

Before Janan was able to recover enough to attempt to defend herself again Myrrha felt Cooro pulling lightly on his sleeve to catch his attention. It worked, actually managing to startle the younger boy quite a bit. He was always forgetting he was there.

"Myrrha? I don't think she's lying," the crow +anima said softly. The silver prince could only stare at him for a moment, trying to figure out a way to explain to him that _of course she was lying. _He just didn't get it, because he didn't know how things worked around here yet. The people here were mean and they _would_ lie about something like this just to get attention. And she had to be lying because something like this could never really happen.

Before he was able to actually get any of those thoughts passed his brain and actually vocalized he felt one of the other princes roughly push past him. By the time he was able to focus enough to realize it was Rida the brunette had already knocked Cooro to the ground.

"Shut up! What would a stupid slave like you know anyway?!" he yelled. Without even thinking Myrrha pushed the boy away from him, letting all of the confusion and fear inside of him to quickly transform into anger. It hadn't been quite hard enough to knock him to the ground like his had been, but it did manage to make him step back enough so that Myrrha could get in between him and Cooro again.

"Leave him alone! He doesn't have anything to do with this!" the younger boy ordered.

"Then make sure your pet keeps out of it then, got it?!" Keane said. This was what Myrrha was much more used to, being on opposite sides of an argument again. He wouldn't say that it made him feel better exactly, but it definitely felt more normal.

"He's not a pet! And why would you care what he says anyway?" Myrrha fought back, not even really paying attention to why he was actually saying by this point. He didn't know why he was focusing so much on this when there was still the issue of whether or not Janan really was lying about the king. It was just simpler to deal with this instead. It wasn't possibly so scarily life changing that he couldn't even begin to think about how he could deal with it.

It didn't seem like it mattered much what he wanted to focus on however, the sound of the palace alarm blaring out at that moment. The sound caused all of the boys to practically freeze on the spot, but Janan had finally managed to come to herself enough to scramble back to her feet.

"_See?_ I told you! I told you I wasn't lying!" she yelled over the horns, still somehow managing to keep any of the tears coating her eyes from actually falling.

"B-but there's no… there's no way it's true…" Myrrha mumbled, barely able to hear himself over the blasting sound.

Once again, no one had any idea what to do for a moment. Behind him Cooro slowly got to his feet as well, although none of the royal children really took any notice.

Were they just supposed to stand there and wait for someone to come and tell them what to do? The blaring sound of the alarm was obviously trying to tell them something, but none of the children were quite in the right mind enough to figure out exactly what that was.

"Myrrha? I think we should go back to your room," Cooro said quietly, or at least it seemed that way when he was competing with the sound of the horns. Reluctantly the silver prince managed to nod, letting Cooro grab onto his arm and gently pull him out of the courtyard. He didn't bother to look back to see what the other royal children might be considering doing, instead just stumbling forward in a slight daze until the two arrived back into his room and the door was closed.

"Myrrha?" Cooro asked once again. The sound of the alarm was muffled quite a bit inside of the room, so he didn't have to speak as loudly in order to be heard.

The silver prince didn't say anything, instead sitting on his bed in such a way that it looked more like he'd just happened to fall that way.

Cooro didn't know what he was supposed to do. Should he even be here? Myrrha might just want some time by himself in order to sort out what had just happened. But if he left it might look like he didn't care about him, which certainly wasn't the case. Looking the younger boy over, he could see that his hands were starting to shake as he squeezed the life out of his blanket.

"I… I don't… It's true?" Myrrha asked suddenly, looking back over at Cooro. He sounded so confused, voice quivering as he spoke. His already huge eyes were opened so wide, shining brightly with unshed tears. It actually impressed Cooro slightly that the small boy had managed to keep from completely breaking down. Of course, that might be due to the shock of it all keeping him from fully comprehending what had just happened.

"Yeah, I think so," the black haired boy said softly, trying his best to keep from further upsetting his friend. Myrrha instantly started shaking his head though, closing his eyes as if in fear that his tears would start to betray him.

"N-no!" The prince yelled, quickly jumping back up to his feet. "It _can't _be true! Father… he can't just die! He's the king! Who's supposed to take care of the country if he died?!" he argued, although the anger and composer he was trying to give off was hindered greatly by the way his voice continued to crack.

Cooro just stared at the prince for a moment, unsure of what to say. He didn't want to make Myrrha anymore upset than he already was, but it seemed like anything he could say would just end up doing that no matter what.

"I'm sorry Myrrha," he finally managed to say softly. The silver boy just stared at him for another moment, before collapsing back onto his bed. This time, he wasn't able to keep the tears back, instantly starting sobbing into his blanket.

Cooro didn't know what he was supposed to do now, simply walking over to the chair and sitting quietly as he waited for Myrrha to calm down. He didn't know if it was rude to stay here, but he didn't want to be rude by leaving either. He guessed that the way the prince was now, he wouldn't really be upset either way, but he didn't want to chance it.

Periodically the crow +anima would hear sounds from outside of the room, but he didn't chance getting up to see what they were while Myrrha was still so upset. Eventually the horns stopped sounding, and after about fifteen minutes so did the boy's crying.

As quietly as he could Cooro crept over to the younger boy, quickly finding that he'd fallen asleep. Once again he heard a few people walking outside, and he decided to take that chance to see just what was going on.

Peeking his head out of the door, he saw a few of the guard ladies walking down the hallway. He'd never actually talked to any of the guards before, but he figured that right now they would probably be the best people to ask. Stepping fully out of the room, he quickly sprinted in order to catch up with the two.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked, catching their attention. They looked a bit confused at first, probably not recognizing him as one of the princes. As far as he'd seen, none of the other slaves ever came into his part of the palace, so they probably didn't expect him to be here.

"I'm Prince Myrrha's slave, he sent me to find out what the alarm had been for," he explained. Sure, that wasn't completely true, but he would tell Myrrha once he woke up. He was sure the boy would want to know too. Either way, the guards nodded before beginning to explain.

"All of the royal family is to stay in their own rooms until further notice. Everything else shall be explained once the palace is once again deemed safe. You should head back to the slave quarters after speaking to your master," she explained, Cooro instantly nodding.

"Alright, thank you," he said, quickly turning around to head back to Myrrha's room afterwards, leaving the guards to continue their patrol. He guessed they were making sure that none of the children tried to sneak out.

Or that whoever had killed the king didn't try to take out a few of the princes as well.

Once back in Myrrha's room he saw that the young boy was still fast asleep. He didn't think it would really be the best idea to wake him up just to tell him that he needed to stay in his room until they told him to come out.

The guards had said that he should go back to the slave quarters though, and he didn't want Myrrha to think that he'd just up and left him for no good reason. He was he that the silver boy would understand if he told him afterwards. He probably wouldn't even notice if he left once he woke up, he was such a mess at the moment.

Despite all of this, the crow +anima still found himself tip toeing as quietly as he could over to the sleeping boy. Taking a small breath, he began to shake his shoulder gently.

"Myrrha?" he whispered, the prince's eyes fluttering open slightly a few moments later. There were still streaks on his face from where his tears had run down, but thankfully no fresh ones were falling at the moment. He started to look around a bit in confusion, but before he was able to completely wake up the black haired boy started speaking again.

"The guards said that you need to stay in your room until it's safe to come out, and that I should go back to the slave quarters. I just wanted to let you know I was leaving," he said quietly.

He expected Myrrha to simply nod or something and go back to sleep. Instead the silver boy shook his head before collapsing it back down on his pillow, his voice coming out strangely muffled and horsed when he spoke.

"No… stay here," he said, surprising Cooro. The crow +anima cocked his head to the side in confusion at the request.

"Okay, I'll stay, but why?" he asked. Myrrha's eyes were already closed once again, and the boy looked dangerously close to falling right back to sleep. Despite this, he still managed to mumble out an answer to his question.

"I don't wanna be alone…" he said softly. Slowly Cooro started to nod, not very surprised by that fact as he thought about it. His father had just been killed; of course he'd be scared and confused.

The black haired boy's mind went back to his earlier thought about whoever had killed the king possibly wanting to attack some of the royal children as well. If that was the case, Myrrha was first in line for the throne, so he'd probably be one of the first people someone would come after. If Myrrha's mind had started to go down that road as well then he most certainly had every right to be afraid of being left by himself.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you alone," Cooro said softly, taking a seat back down at the prince's desk. Myrrha barely managed to nod, quickly starting to lose consciousness once again.

"Thank you," he mumbled into his pillow. Cooro couldn't help but smile slightly at this, despite all the horrible things that had happened so suddenly in just the last hour.

"You're welcome Myrrha."

* * *

><p>Yay, this was surprisingly easy to write once I finally sat down to do it. Like I said, I shouldn't take quite as long on the next chapter, hooray for having a fixed date that I must force myself to complete. I really can't believe this story will be a year old soon though, that's just crazy.<br>Well, I hope you liked the chapter, and as always please review.


	13. Ch 12 An Announcement

Hey people, time for a new chapter. I have an announcement to make, in that I'm going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I'm pretty excited since this is the first time I'm going to attempt to do it, but of course this means that I won't be able to update throughout all of November. Sorry about that, but updates will start up again as normal in December. Oh, and in case anyone doesn't know NaNo is where you have to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Wish me luck.  
>And yay, this story is officially a year old (I almost missed the date, because the days had completely escaped me. I made it though, barely.)<p>

Chapter 12 – An Announcement

The horns had stopped rather quickly, leaving the prince's room seeming almost deathly quiet. Cooro sat on the desk chair, switching between looking at a sleeping Myrrha and out the window. He didn't know what to do, sine he didn't want to risk waking him up, but Myrrha had told him to stay, so he was going to.

It didn't cross his mind that he _needed_ to, since he was his slave, but just that he wanted to. Myrrha was really upset, so he was going to make sure that he did as much as he could to help the younger boy. As far as they knew, his father had just died from some unknown cause, it could have been an assassination or just an accident or a really sudden and unexpected sickness, but they really had no idea or way of finding out.

It was almost an hour later when Cooro started to hear some people going through the hallways, knocking on the doors. He guessed that they were starting to gather up the royal children to finally explain whatever was going on, or as much as they knew, at least.

Not waiting for them to get to Myrrha's door, the black haired boy quickly got up and started over to the bed. Softly he started shaking the sleeping boy's shoulder, speaking quietly.

"Myrrha? I think you should get up soon," he said softly. Myrrha's eyes opened slowly, his head turning slightly in order to try to focus on Cooro. There was an obvious confusion there as he pushed himself up groggily, rubbing at his eyes before looking over at him again.

"What's going on?" he asked, failing to stifle a yawn. Cooro smiled softly, glancing at the door quickly before explaining.

"I think the guards are coming down through each of the rooms to get everybody, so I'd thought I'd wake you up so that they didn't have to," he said. Myrrha nodded, although there was still some innate confusion there, as if he couldn't quite remember just what he'd been doing beforehand or why he was sleeping in the first place. The sounds of the guards coming down the hall were getting a bit louder, and it looked as if suddenly everything that had happened came back to him all at once.

"O-oh. Oh yeah… I forgot for a second," he mumbled, his voice just the bit shaky from the resurfaced memory. Cooro just nodded, not able to say anything before the knocking finally came at their door. Myrrha didn't waste a second before calling for whoever it was to come inside. There was still a hitch in the child's voice as he spoke, however.

"Prince Myrrha," the guard said, bowing just slightly as she entered the room. Cooro couldn't help but be a bit relieved that it wasn't one of the guards that he'd spoken to earlier, seeing as he'd obviously hadn't listened to them. Myrrha had wanted him to stay though, so there wasn't anything he could have done about that, even if he wanted to, which he hadn't.

The eight year old prince simply nodded, not making any moves that he was going to leave his bed or anything. The guard didn't seemed particularly bothered by this though, instead simply continuing with whatever it was she had to say.

"I've come to inform you that all residents of the harem should report to the fifth floor of the Sun Tower immediately," she said. Quickly, she glanced over at Cooro, eyes seeming to lock onto the collar around his neck for just a moment before she continued again, "Your slave should head back to its quarters at once as well," she added on. Myrrha nodded, although there was just a tiny bit of hesitance in his movement.

"Thank you, we'll start over at once," he said. The guard quickly excused herself afterwards, moving on to continue telling all of the royal children just where they needed to go.

The second his door had closed the silver boy let out a sigh, hands bundled up in his blanket as he just sat there for a moment, not focusing on any one particular thing. Cooro wasn't sure what to do, instead just waiting until he was sure Myrrha was well enough to be left alone. Slowly, he started unwinding his hands from the curls of fabric, swinging his legs around to the edge of his bed afterwards.

"I… I guess I should head over to the Sun Tower and you should get back to the slave quarters before we get in trouble," he said softly. Cooro nodded in agreement, although he didn't particularly mind if he got in trouble himself. Technically, Myrrha was the only one allowed to punish him, and he really couldn't see the other boy thinking about doing something like that right now.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" he asked, Myrrha almost immediately nodding. There was still a frailness that Cooro was not used to seeing in the other boy at all, but he should probably have been more worried if there wasn't something wrong with him after all of this. Offering him a smile, the black haired boy started towards the door.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then, but you can come get me whenever if you need anything," he said. Once again Myrrha nodded, actually looking rather grateful at that. Cooro wondered if he was still worried about staying alone, but decided not to ask about it. Even as he was now, he doubted that the young prince would like to admit to being afraid of something like that.

"Thanks, I'll see you then, I guess," he said quietly, watching as Cooro said bye once again and left the room. The second he was alone the silver boy collapsed back onto his bed. He needed to go to the Sun Tower, but he just… he just didn't feel like moving right now.

That didn't matter though; if he didn't go he might get in trouble or something. Plus, he wanted to know what had actually happened.

Maybe Janan had been wrong, after all. Maybe their father wasn't actually dead, just hurt or sick or something. She might have seen something and overreacted or misread the situation. There were a whole slew of possibilities other than the fact that he was really dead.

Running a hand through his hair, Myrrha forced himself to stand up once again and actually leave his room this time. He kept telling himself over and over again on the way there that it was going to be okay. Nothing was set in stone yet.

He was about halfway to the fifth floor of the Sun Tower when he noticed that there were still several other royal children walking over as well. At least he wouldn't be the last person there, thankfully.

Almost everyone looked extremely confused. Some scared, some anxious and excited, but pretty much everyone dumbfounded and curious. One of the only people who didn't fit that description was Keane, who he caught sight of out of the corner of his eye once he finally reached the large main room on the fifth floor. The redhead looked almost terrified, hands shaking horribly as he basically hid, sitting in one of the corners.

Myrrha instantly turned away from him, scanning over the rest of the room. Keane was never good at dealing with things like this anyway. Not that Myrrha was all too sure what 'this' even was, but it was pretty clear that Keane wasn't dealing with it too well either way.

The silver prince couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of his mother, instantly starting over to her. She quickly spotted him as well. There wasn't any looks of worry or fear immediately noticeable on her face, but he was quickly able to see the slight fear in her eyes. Things like this don't happen normally.

"What's happening?" he asked, hoping that somehow she would be able to immediately tell him what was going on and that there wasn't any reason for him to be worried.

"I don't know dear, I'm sure they'll tell us soon," was all she said though. Myrrha wasn't able to completely hide his disappointment at the lack of answer, but his mother didn't comment on it. Instead, she simply started over to a few chairs lined up along the sides of the room, the young boy following behind her.

Neither said anything for a moment, Myrrha unsure on whether or not to actually say what he was thinking about. What if she thought he was just making things up to be dramatic? No, she knew that he wouldn't do something like that; she wasn't like the other queens.

Taking a deep breath, he decided that it couldn't hurt, softly tugging at Lady Marien's sleeve.

"Mother?" he whispered, not wanting to chance anyone overhearing. The young woman turned towards him, not saying anything as she waited for her son to continue. "I um, Janan was saying that she saw something…" he started. Once again she nodded, listening to the boy. Myrrha hesitated slightly, not wanting to say it out loud and make it any more real. His curiosity of what his mother would say though got the better of him, and he continued.

"She said that she, uh, she said dad _died,_" he finished, hissing the last word so quietly it was almost impossible for her to actually hear him over the sounds of the rest of the royal family filtering into the grand room.

Watching her carefully, Myrrha was just barely able to notice a look a shock and fear that passed over her face in about half a second before quickly being replaced by her nearly expressionless mask once again. She didn't say anything for a moment, causing the fear in the pit of Myrrha's stomach to multiply nearly ten times.

"We'll just have to wait and see what they say dear," she said at last. Slowly Myrrha forced himself to nod. Facing forward once again, he pulled his feet up onto the chair and hugged his knees to his chest. He didn't let himself cry or anything like before in his room. Just because his mother couldn't tell him he was wrong doesn't mean that it was necessarily true.

After what felt like forever a few of the major advisors for the king came into the room. Myrrha instantly recognized all of them, having had them for teachers at least once or twice since he was announced first in line for the throne.

The entire room fell quiet rather quickly, which was very surprising for the amount of people inside. Myrrha didn't tend to think about just how big the royal family was, so it tended to surprise him whenever the entirety of them were called together, which didn't happen very often. Of course, the rareness of the event was probably helping a great deal to the reason as to why everyone had stopped talking so suddenly at the sight of someone who might be able to answer just what was going on.

One of the men cleared his throat, Lord Ebrahim, stepping forward slightly as well in order to make sure he had the attention of the room.

"Hello everyone. I'm sure you're all confused as to the recent strange events, and I apologize greatly for having to disrupt your evening so severely," the older man started off. Watching him now, Myrrha could see that same distracted fear running through him as had been during the last class they had together; only it seemed even worse right now. Once again he had to force himself to calm down, hugging his knees a bit tighter as he did.

He didn't know for sure. Jana was probably wrong. She might not have been lying, just mistaken. It just had to be a mistake…

"It is my extreme displeasure to have to inform all of you that…" he trailed off slightly, as if afraid to say the next few words. Taking another breath, the older man continued, "that our great King has died earlier this evening," he finished.

Myrrha's head instantly dropped into his knees, as if he was trying to block out what he'd just heard. It really was true. The room had gone to deathly silent to incredibly loud what seemed to be instantly. He heard a few of the queens scream, but wasn't about to look up to see just who it was, he didn't particularly care. His own mother was completely silent besides him; it almost as if she'd just stopped breathing.

Lord Ebrahim allowed for the initial shock to pass over the crowd before even attempting to begin again. No one else had any idea. The only people Janan had been able to tell were those other three princes, himself and Cooro. Sure, she might have tried to tell others since then, but something just told him that the shock of it all had really prevented any of them from spreading the rumor too much.

The older nobleman didn't allow the panic that had started at the announcement to go on for very long before starting to speak again, silencing the room once again. Myrrha didn't bother to look up as he continued; he could still hear him without seeing, after all.

"I understand your shock, but please try to stay calm as we continue to assess the situation. Our best sources show that no one else should be in danger," he said. It sounded like the room had calmed down a tiny bit at this, although there was still a fog of terror and anxiety over the whole room.

The next thing he said caught Myrrha completely off guard. He should have expected something like that, thinking about it, but he hadn't. His mind hadn't even begun to spin in that direction yet at all. He wondered if anyone else's had, or if they were too blindsided about the tragedy to think about the future yet as well.

So even if he _should_ have realized this before they actually said it, he hadn't. Instead, the eight year old felt his breath hitch and heart stop as he just barely managed to comprehend what his teacher was announcing to the whole of the palace.

"Due to this most unfortunate turn of events, as of tonight Crown Prince Myrrha shall be the official ruler of Sailand…" The silver boy's head shot up at the sound of his name. He didn't know if Lord Ebrahim had continued speaking or not after that sentence. He didn't notice that the eyes of practically every person in the room was now on him, instead just frozen where he sat, unable to even breath from the shock.

Oh no.

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><p>Poor Husky, things just keep happening to you. I'm glad I was able to get this chapter up on time, although I'm sorry that not much technically happened in it. I promise that things are going to start really picking up again next chapter (and I am also sorry that it will be a while before that chapter gets written).<br>I do hope you liked it though, and as always thanks for reading and please review.


	14. Ch 13 All Wrong

And I'm back from the depth of NaNoWriMo/Going back across the country to the east coast for winter break and getting messed up with jet lag. Still a bit messed up with the jet lag, but no reason why I can't write at three in the morning, right?

Sorry for taking so long for this new chapter, especially since I left you all on a bit of a cliff hanger too. I'll definitely be trying to keep myself on a better schedule for now on, at least for a while. Yes though, I won't bog you down any more, instead I'll just let you read the chapter. That's what you came for anyway.

Chapter 13 – All Wrong

After the initial announcement, Myrrha's mind wasn't quite able to process anything for several long moments. The child simply stared off at nothing, anything in his line of sight fading away as unimportant as what was said slowly sunk in.

The ruler of Sailand. He was supposed to be the ruler of Sailand now. B-but that didn't… that couldn't…

The rest of the grand room around him was a blur as he attempted to process that small sentence, the sound of the royal advisors speaking not actually reaching his ears. The first thing to actually knock him out of his stupor, if only just barely was his mother squeezing his hand slightly, in what the silver boy assumed to be an attempt at reassuring him. He wasn't quite sure if it worked, but at the very least it managed to allow his brain to start up again.

It seemed to have completely stopped for a few seconds there, almost as if he'd been on a brink of simply fainting at the news. What kind of prince fainted? That was something queens and princesses, something that _girls_ do. B-but being the ruler of a whole country…

He just… he just couldn't. This was wrong in so many ways! There was no way their father could really be dead. There was no way he could be the ruler! He didn't know how to rule a country. He couldn't even order around his own slave without feeling some sort of weird guilt. This was just wrong, wrong, _wrong_.

Myrrha hadn't noticed that his hands had started to shake until his mother's grip tightened again, and the young boy attempted to take a deep breath and calm himself. The king's advisors were still talking, but he couldn't really hear what they were saying. He didn't know if that was because they just weren't talking loud enough, or if he just wasn't really paying any attention to them. It was probably the latter.

Finally they stopped speaking, and the room instantly erupted in noise. All of the queens and royal children were attempting not to panic as they'd been told, although most were gossiping and posturing fearfully about what had happened, and what was going to happen now. Several people would steal glances as the seemingly catatonic prince that had just been announced ruler before turning away to start whispering again.

"Myrrha?" his mother asked softly after a few moments, effectively managing to catch the boy's attention. He turned his gaze over to her, which had previously been staring off in front of him at nothing as he attempted to right this situation in his head. This situation that was just so very wrong.

"Everything will be okay dear," she told him simply, but the silver child slowly managed to shake his head. He didn't usually disagree with his mother, she was actually smart, after all, but there was no way that was true. How could everything be okay after this? The king was dead and they were expecting him to rule the country! He was eight… he couldn't do something like this.

He could feel the tears start forming in his eyes once again, threatening to spill out here, in front of the whole royal family. Myrrha quickly squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to keep them from falling, although it didn't seem to be helping much. The rest of his body was starting to tremble now as well, and he barely managed to get out a few words without his voice completely cracking.

"W-want to go to my room," he managed to mumble. Lady Marien quickly nodded, standing up and walking over to the nearest guard. Myrrha couldn't hear what she was saying, but he assumed she must be asking permission for them to leave. He hoped dearly that they would let them. There was nothing else to announce after all, right? Well, he didn't really know particularly well, since he hadn't heard over half of what they had said.

The silver boy allowed his eyes to leave her as she spoke, letting them to wonder around the room slightly, not really focusing on anything as he just tried to take in what was going on around him.

He couldn't spot Janan or Keane or anyone else who'd known what had happened before the announcement. He wondered how they were handling it now that everyone knew, now that it really was true. He wondered if Keane was still curled up in the corner like a scared rat.

He hadn't been able to scan the room for very long before his mother was back at his side, softly whispering to his that they could go back to his now room if he liked. Just barely he managed to nod, gently standing up and clinging to his mother's hand as she led him out of the room. Myrrha could feel the majority of the room's eyes' on them as they left, but he simply ignored them for now. He didn't care about them at the moment. He could deal with how everyone else was reacting to this, to him being the new leader later.

Their seemed to be more guards than normal as they made their way back to the prince's floor, which helped to calm Myrrha down just ever so slightly. Whoever or whatever had killed the king probably wasn't around anymore, or if they were they'd been caught or were going to get caught. It wouldn't hurt him.

He barely noticed when they reached his room and his mother led him over to his bed, gently sitting him down and kneeling down in front of the fragile boy. The tears that had been threatening to fall before were back, and once again he was fighting to keep them away, hands scrunching up the expensive blanket beneath him so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the strain.

"I… I can't," he struggled out, shaking his head and trying to convey to his mother just how horribly wrong all of this was. The young woman gently ran a hand through his hair comfortingly as she spoke.

"Shhh, it's alright," she spoke very softly; a warmness in her voice that wasn't normally present from someone called an ice queen. Even still, Myrrha shook his head defiantly. Didn't she see that this was the opposite of alright?

"But the king's… a-and they want me to…" he stumbled out. It wasn't fair; he was usually stronger than this. He didn't break down like this; he was supposed to fight back. There wasn't anything to fight now though. This wasn't the other princes making fun of him or anything like that. This was a situation completely out of his control and he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

Once again his mother was smoothing down his hair gently, causing Myrrha to look up at her through watery eyes.

"It's alright; you won't have to do anything. Not until you're much older, there's nothing to worry about," she told him, confusing the eight year-old greatly.

"But they said I'm the ruler now. I'll have to take dad's place," he said, the befuddlement in his voice clear. Lady Marien shook her head softly as she explained.

"It's just a title dear, so that the people and other countries won't think we're weaker without a single leader. The king's advisors will take care of most of the work for you, and I'll help you with anything left until you're old enough to rule on your own," she told him, and Myrrha nearly collapsed in relief.

Of course… of course they wouldn't actually let an eight year old in charge of the entire country. He'd mess it up beyond recognition. This was better. This was much better.

There was still a swirling mix of fear and apprehension and sorrow churning around in his gut, but it wasn't quite as bad as it had been just a few moments ago. There were still tears threatening to leak out of the corners of his eyes, but his father had just been killed. It was understandable.

Yes, it was a father that none of them had been particularly close with. They couldn't be though, and even though he was young he understood that. He'd been the king first and their father second.

And being liked by him too much had out a target on your back for the other princes and queens. But that didn't matter anymore. There wasn't anyone to change the hierarchy anymore, so it would stay as it was, he guessed. Him at the top for who knows what reason, instead of one of the older princes. He'd almost hoped that their father would end up changing his mind before anything became official, maybe naming Keane Crown Prince instead, since he was the oldest boy and everything, but there was no way for that to happen now. He was stuck fated to be king.

"You promise everything will be okay," he asked. He knew it was a childish thing to do, since everything she had said made sense, but maybe it was okay to be acting just a little bit childish right now. He certainly didn't feel like acting very strong and mighty at the moment.

His mother smiled softly and nodded. He didn't know how she could be acting like this, but he guessed it was just because she was an adult. They were better at handling emotions than kids were. Adults didn't let their emotions show all the time. Not like how he was right now, or when he'd broken down earlier in front of Cooro. Or how Janan had acted when telling them all what she had found out. Or how Keane had been cowering during the announcement. Adults were stronger than that.

"Of course Myrrha," she told him, standing up afterwards. "Will you be alright by yourself for now? Or would you like me to stay for a bit longer?" She asked. Even though the silver boy would have much preferred not to be left alone (there was still that fear, no matter how much he told himself that whoever had killed their father was either caught or long gone, there was no way they could hurt him now) he started shaking his head.

Adults were strong, and even if he was only eight and it was just a title, the ruler of a country needed to be strong. He couldn't act like a little kid anymore, even though he'd never truly acted his age to begin with.

"I'll be fine. I think I'll just… go to sleep for the night, or something," he mumbled. Lady Marien nodded before saying goodbye to her son once more and leaving the room. When he was alone, Myrrha pulled the thick blankets up around him and collapsed down onto his bed.

He'd be fine. He told her he'd be fine, and he would be. He should just sleep, like he said. Sleep and just forget what was going on for a few moments. Maybe it was all just a bad dream, and when he woke up things would be normal again.

Halfheartedly he shook the foolish thought away. He knew this wasn't a dream, or well, maybe more like a nightmare. He just needed to be calm for right now, and try to take this one step at a time. His mother had told him it was going to be alright, and she was smart. She had to be right about this.

Eventually, the young boy ended up falling into a fitful sleep. Every so often he would wake during the night, the fear of a nightmare he couldn't remember at all forcing him to take a few moments to get calm again before slowly falling back to sleep, only to repeat again about an hour later.

It was early when he heard someone knocking on his door, waking the tired boy from his latest attempt at sleep. Begrudgingly pushing himself up, he rubbed at his eyes before telling whoever it was to come in. He couldn't help but hope that it wasn't anything important, although it probably was. Even though Myrrha kept telling himself that it was only a title, like his mother had said, he couldn't help but think that something would end up changing with this now.

Thankfully though, instead of a guard walking in or one of the kings advisors or anyone like that, when the door creaked open he saw Cooro peak his head in hesitantly, a small smile forming on his face at the sight of the young prince.

Myrrha wondered if anyone had explained to the servants and slaves what had happened last night, but thinking about it they probably hadn't said anything more than the bare minimum they needed to know. They would find out with the announcement to the rest of the country, just like everyone else.

"Hi Myrrha, how are you feeling?" Cooro asked as he stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. The silver boy shrugged slightly, attempting to put off what had happened yesterday as no real big deal.

"Tired, I didn't really sleep well last night," he said after a moment. Cooro nodded, pulling over his desk chair so that he could sit down and talk with the prince.

"Sorry about that," he said, seeming to hesitate slightly before continuing on. "So, what happened last night? After I um, had to leave?" he asked. It was strange; the black haired boy was acting much more subdued than he normally was. Myrrha guessed that after yesterday though, with what Cooro had been around to hear, it wasn't any surprise. No one could be so happy go lucky all of the time, after all.

"Just what Janan had told us. She'd been telling the truth, like you said," he mumbled, having drawn his knees up to his chest as he sat. Cooro simply nodded solemnly, which was so odd for the boy. Myrrha didn't like it. He knew he shouldn't expect Cooro to be happy all the time, but he just kind of wanted things to be normal. Nothing seemed like it would be normal anymore though, so it was only to be expected, really.

"Oh, and um, I'm also kind of the king now, or just the ruler of Sailand or something," the silver boy added on, nearly as an afterthought. That certainly seemed to startle Cooro a bit though, and Myrrha wondered slightly if it was the actual information, just the casual way he'd brought it up or a combination of both. Probably a bit of both, thinking about it.

"Huh? Really? The ruler of the whole country? That's amazing," the +anima slave said, and Myrrha shrugged, not looking at Cooro as he explained. Instead he just messed with his covers slightly; pinching them and pulling the fabric up before letting it fall back into place again.

"Kind of, my mother says it's mainly just a title, so that other countries and the people don't think we're weak without a leader. I won't really do anything until I'm older," he said, turning towards Cooro afterwards to see him nod in understanding.

"Oh, okay. Well, whenever you do end up becoming the official king for real and everything, I'm sure you'll do a great job of it," Cooro said. Reluctantly Myrrha nodded.

"Yeah, I guess," he mumbled. He really didn't know how true that was though. Sure, that's what everyone had always told him, it's why his father had named him first in line, so he shouldn't be self-couscous about it. He knew he was smart for his age, and he took this all very seriously. There was no reason for anyone to think he wasn't going to be cut out to rule the country someday.

Even still, there was something, a small voice in the back of his head telling him it was wrong. He wasn't meant to be the king. He wasn't meant for any of this. Maybe it was just the result of all the bullying telling him such, but he didn't think so. There wasn't anything he could do though, he'd be king whether he was meant to be or not.

He just hoped Cooro was right and the voice inside of him was wrong.

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><p>And hooray a chapter yes! Once again, sorry for taking so long, but I hope this wasn't too bad. If you follow some of my other stories, they should be updated very soon as well, so yay for that? Really though, the +anima section is currently overrun with unrelated clutter. We need to fight back!<br>Haha, but yes, I hope you liked the chapter, and as always, thanks for reading and please review.


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